


Operation: Obliterate!

by Aviditas04



Series: The Alexander Chronicles Book I: Greece [4]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 4: The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:21:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 30,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25256860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviditas04/pseuds/Aviditas04
Summary: Nico has left camp, and Alex is determined to find him before Kronos can. Now, Alex and his friends have discovered Kronos' plan to use the Labyrinth to invade Camp Half-Blood. It's up to them to find Daedelus and convince him to prevent the invasion of Camp Half-Blood, or find a way to destroy the great Labyrinth.
Series: The Alexander Chronicles Book I: Greece [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/883911





	1. I Go on Offence

_I sighed, knowing that my heart would probably be broken again, when all of a sudden, my uncle appeared in my room. "Hello, nephew. It's good to see you again."_

I raised an eyebrow at my uncle. "Lord Pluto, while I am honored that you're here, I have to ask why."

"Because nephew, I know about your feelings for my son, and how devoted you are to him. I also know how you can help protect him from my father and his forces."

"And how is that?"

"By giving him someone to focus his wrath on: you."

I raised my eyebrow again. "And just how would I do that?"

"You have command over lightning, much as your brother has control over the winds." When he saw the shocked look on my face, he laughed. "What? Did you really think I wouldn't know about Jason Grace? No, I knew, and he is perfectly safe. Now, that control over lightning gives you a rare ability that few of your siblings has."

"And that is?"

"My children can travel anywhere through shadows. Poseidon's children, the strongest of them anyways, can travel through water vapor. You on the other hand can travel as a bolt of lightning, and you can go as far as you like."

I stood there for a minute in shock. To be able to go anywhere in an instant? Yes, I could easily become a threat to Saturn and his forces. And at the same time, I could search for Nico and learn how he truly felt about me. "How do I do it?"

"You must feel the lightning inside yourself and let it fill you up. Then you must focus on _where_ you want to go. Try it now." I did as he asked, and by the gods was I shocked to find out how much lightning I had in myself. (Pun fully intended!) However, as I just wanted to test my new ability, I decided to only go to where we lost Nico only a few hours ago. In an instant, I found myself in front of Zeus' Fist, a rock formation that only looked like a fist at _just_ the right angle. I smiled, ready to get back to work. But first I needed something else.

The test completed, I moved to the blacksmith and started work on a new set of armor. Since I had returned from my first quest, I had used _lorica hamata_ , a Roman mail armor as my preferred armor. But my recent battle against the chimera revealed the weakness in the _hamata_ : it was weak against piercing attacks. I had chosen that particular style because that was the armor used during the Roman Republic, and I knew that Nova Roma was based on the Republic. Besides which, _hamata_ was perfectly acceptable against the slashing weapons I expected to face when fighting _graecii_. With the chimera bite though, I needed the classic Imperial Roman armor: the _lorica laminata_ , or more commonly, the _lorica segmentata_ , the most famous armor that the Roman legions ever used. As a kind of plate armor, it would protect me from both the slashing attacks of my _graecii_ friends and enemies, and it would also protect me from the piercing effects of teeth and arrows, not to mention the thrusts of another gladius.

* * *

_I watched Nico in what appeared to be a large corridor, with rubble in the middle. Apparently he was starting to get control of his powers over the earth, and I was proud of him for that. Then a beautiful girl appeared, asking for his help. She said that she needed the help of a boy like him, a demigod. Nico and I both became suspicious at that, and then she changed. Her true form was revealed: a pale woman with one bronze leg and one animal leg: an empusa. She quickly paralyzed him with her powers and knocked his Stygian Iron sword away before attempting to bite him. Nico managed to push her off and told her "Don't come any closer."_

_"Or what?"_

_"Or I will turn you into dust before you can say 'Hades.'" The empusa took a step forward and started to say the name of Nico's father, but before she could finish, a stone spike impaled her and she turned into dust. Yes, Nico was_ definitely _learning, and fast._

* * *

I woke in a sweat. Clearly my uncle was sending me these vision to let me know Nico's condition. With that motivating me, I worked tirelessly creating my _segmentata_ armor, which was ready after only a week. Then I made my move, flashing to a camp Pluto had let me know about through another dream. I turned my bow against the sentries, and when they were dust, walked into the camp. The monsters took one look at me, and charged. They didn't last long. Two of them (Cyclops) surrendered, and I said, "Go, tell Luke what happened here, and that Alexander Julius is coming for him." They started running, but then I thought _How many Cyclops does it take to deliver a message?_ Then I answered my own question, "One." And I shot one of the Cyclops in the lead. That should make sure that Luke gets my message. That done, I flashed back to camp. It was time the war truly began.

The next morning, however, I realized that I was too sore to continue my assault on my grandfather's forces. My inner lightning was so weak that I couldn't even summon a spark, let alone flash anywhere. As such, I was forced to stay at Camp Half-Blood until I recovered. Over the next month, I took my training more serious than ever before, while also experimenting with different foods, figuring out what would best increase my electric powers, eventually coming up with a perfected, electrolyte heavy diet.

Something else I had perfected: my ability to see the future. I already knew that my music sometimes led to receiving visions of the future connected to the song I had listened to, so I pulled a few instrumentals by Two Steps From Hell into a playlist. The best songs for finding the enemy camps were undoubtedly _Freedom Fighters_ , _Masters of Shadow_ , _Protectors of the Earth_ and _1000 Ships of the Underworld_. With those playing, I knew I would receive a vision for another target.

The next morning, I awoke with my target, but also knowing that I couldn't just indiscriminately slaughter those in the camp. This one had demigods inside, and as much as I despised Luke, I couldn't really blame him or others for making the choice they did when they supported Saturn. But what could I do? I didn't know, but either way, I was going to destroy that camp.

On the third of February, I flashed to the camp I had seen and once again I took out the scouts before charging into the main camp. The monsters never stood a chance, nor did my fellow demigods, but with the demigods, I simply knocked them out. Once again, I let one monster survive to run and tell Luke what I had done. While I waited for the demigods to come to, I quickly sorted them out between Greek and Roman with the help of Lady Venus. Luckily, these demigods had only just learned of their heritage, so it was easy for me to win them over to our side. I gave my fellow Romans enough money to get them to San Francisco, while I flashed the Greeks with me back to camp.

* * *

_I was watching Nico again, and this time, he was with somebody. To my shock, it was a_ Roman demigod _! Based on his tattoo, he was a son of Apollo who had been a member of the 12_ _th_ _Legion for about four years. But there was soon trouble, because as soon as Nico mentioned he was a son of Hades, not Pluto, the legionnaire grabbed his bow and attempted to shoot him. If it wasn't for the ghost that appeared, Nico would have died! Nico then ran until he collapsed, and the ghost said something odd. "Since the maze is my property, I should have the right to control it. Those who intrude on my property deserve madness."_

 _"You mean you made him go crazy?" The ghost nodded, and Nico said "Minos, you are a_ heartless bastard _, you know that?" The ghost, Minos, just grinned._

* * *

Over the next four months, I continued to raid the camps of Saturn, and each time I was able to go on another raid sooner than the previous one. By April I was doing one a week, and by May I could have done one every day and still had the strength to use my lightning as a weapon, which I soon started doing. First I started just electrifying my sword, as I had accidentally discovered that just doing that would knock out any demigod that I struck, even if I just hit their armor. Come early June I had started using it as a direct weapon, much like Palpatine and Dooku from _Star Wars_ , as electrocuting people was a _very_ effective stunning weapon.

One day just as I was preparing for another raid, I walked out just in time to see Javier getting ready to leave the camp. I noticed that he was wearing his new arm-brace, something he claimed was inspired from the Golden Fleece from a game called God of War. If he was wearing that, then he was expecting trouble. "Hey, Javier! Where are you going?" Over the past few months, we had became pretty close friends, but we often got into big arguments, the biggest of which was over my plan to get Luke to focus on me, and not Nico. He thought it was stupid to draw attention to myself, just to protect Nico, but then, he didn't know who Nico's dad was, or about my crush on him.

"I'm going on a quest. Mr. D wants me to help him out with a job. He's doing his best to make sure that the minor gods stand with Olympus, so he told me to find Thanatos."

"Thanatos? You mean the Grim Reaper? Why him? Oh, wait, he's your half-brother, isn't he?"

"Yeah, that's probably why. Hey, you give up on your plan yet?"

"No. I _have_ to protect Nico from Luke, no matter what."

"Why? What's so important about him? You act like he's a son of the Big Three or something."

"You have no idea, Javier. He could be the key to our victory over Kronos, or our defeat. Until I find him and convince him to come back to camp, I _will_ keep fighting Luke's army, and he will come to fear the name Alexander Julius."

"You know, that arrogance is going to get you killed one of these days."

"Not until I've finished my job, I'm not. In any case, good luck Javier. I hope you're successful."

"Thanks, Alex. And good luck to you too, even if I think that you're nuts."

* * *

For the next two weeks, I had no luck finding anymore monster or demigod camps, so I decided to turn my attention elsewhere. While I kept up my training, I had also built up a relationship with my brother, Jason using Iris messages, especially after he managed to create a waterfall near enough to Nova Roma that he could use it whenever he wished. During one of our conversations, he mentioned that sometime after the Olympians first defeated the Titans, Tellus/Gaea decided to avenge her children by spawning giants with Tartarus to destroy the Olympians. As a result, when I wasn't training, raiding or chatting with Jason, I was doing research on the Gigantomachy, or War of the Giants. Unfortunately, the Big House's library was only stocked with books in Greek. While that might not have been a problem for any other demigod, it was a big problem for me. I seemed to learn Greek as quickly as a snail would. The average kid who had just finished his first summer knew more Greek than I did, despite my attempts to learn it. As a result, I learned almost nothing about it; I asked Chiron about it, but either he wasn't willing to talk to me, or he didn't want to talk about it at all. So I was ready when Annabeth brought Percy back to Camp. I knew that soon, Percy would be getting a quest, it was simply Fate with him. "Hey, Percy! How's it been?"

"Not bad, except for the fact that I blew up my mom's boyfriend's school. You know what's going on with Clarisse and Annabeth?"

"Clarisse and Annabeth?" I raised an eyebrow at that. Clearly I had missed out on some prime gossip because of my flash assaults. "No, I'm surprised that they can stand being together. What, are you saying that something's going on with them?"

"I don't know. All I know is that Annabeth said something about the two of them working on something. Then she said something about Chiron wanting to see me before some hearing or other. Do you know anything about that?"

"Actually yeah. Apparently the Council of Cloven Elders is meeting to decide if they should revoke Grover's searcher's license. They don't believe that Pan actually spoke to him."

By now, we had reached the arena, where to our surprise, we found a giant hellhound! We looked at each other, pulled our swords, and charged. But we were stopped by another celestial bronze sword, wielded by . . . a fifty-year-old son of Athena? But something was odd about him, he kind of smelled like the Hephaestus cabin, oil and electric wiring . . . an automaton?

"Whoa, there! Truce!"

"That's a hellhound!"

"She's harmless. That's Mrs. O'Leary." What in the world? A son of Athena with a hellhound for a pet? I could believe it of a child of Hades, being a fellow creature of the Underworld, but this guy acted like she was nothing but an overgrown puppy. "Mrs. O'Leary is my pet. I couldn't let you two stick swords in her rump now, could I? That might scare her."

"Who are you?"

"Promise not to kill me if I put my sword away?"

"Sure."

"Quintus." Quintus? Why would someone have that name, Latin for 'fifth?' "May I see your sword?" We figured he had to be talking to me, so I handed him Ventus. "Interesting. It's a celestial metal, but it's not bronze. What is it?"

"Celestial steel. Comes in real handy when you have mortals that mix in with our world, son of Min-Athena."

"Wait, what?" Percy asked in shock.

"How did you know I was a son of Athena?"

"It's a gift. My sense of smell is sensitive enough to tell who a demigod's Olympian parent is."

"Ah, that's got to be useful."

"So, how did you get a hellhound for a pet?" I couldn't blame Percy for asking that, I was wondering the same thing.

"A long story, involving close calls with death and quite a few giant chew toys. I'm the new sword instructor, by the way. Helping out Chiron while Mr. D is away."

"Oh. Wait, Mr. D is away?" Percy asked.

"Yes, well . . . busy times. Even Dionysus must help out. He's gone to visit some old friends. Make sure they're on the right side. I probably shouldn't say more than that." I knew what he meant, the wine dude was checking on the minor gods, and Javier was working with him. Unfortunately, that meant that things must be in desperate straits if Father was relying on him. Then we noticed the horse-sized boxes that were stacked nearby. When we asked what they were, Quintus said that it was, "A little surprise. Training activity for tomorrow night. You'll love it. You young ones need more challenges. They didn't have camps like this when I was a boy." Hmm, that was odd. He mentioned _camps_ , plural, which probably meant he knew about the Roman camp. And he said that there weren't camps like CHB when he was young? I'd learned that it had been around for at least 200 years just in America, so how was that possible?

"How is that possible that you're … well, old?"

"Some of us _do_ survive into adulthood, you know. Not all of us are the subject of terrible prophecies."

Just then, Chiron showed up and asked Percy to follow him. On the way, Chiron asked Percy about an attack on Percy by some empusa at his school _._ "Jeez, Percy. You really _can't_ stay out of trouble even one year, can you."

"Hey, it's not _my_ fault! They find me! It's not like I consciously go looking for them!"

"Maybe, but can't you avoid destroying the school in the process? This is twice that you've damaged a school because of a monster in as many years. What happened to just killing the monster, like with Dodds?" I asked.

"They don't make it as easy as she did. That empousai got too close to the mortals, then she exploded into fire."

"Mm, the more powerful ones can do that. She didn't die, she just escaped. It's not good that the she-demons are stirring. It's amazing you survived. Their powers of deception . . . almost any male hero would've fallen under their spell and been devoured."

"I would've been. Except for Rachel."

"Rachel? You mean the mortal that saved you at Hoover Dam?" I was shocked. That had to be the most remarkable coincidence I had ever heard of.

"Ironic to be saved by a mortal once, let alone twice. Yet we owe her a debt. What the _empousai_ said about an attack on camp-we must speak of this further. But for now, come, we should get to the woods. Grover will want you there."

"Where?"

I sighed. "His formal hearing, remember? The Council is deciding whether or not to revoke his license."


	2. Discovery

The Council of Cloven Elders were yelling at Grover for "making these scandalous claims that you have heard the wild god Pan speak." They were about to revoke his searcher's license, when I decided to speak up for him. "Excuse me, Leneus. I have a few questions. First, how many satyrs have returned alive before Grover was given his license?"

"None."

"And since?"

"All those who have left have returned alive."

"Um hmm. And in the past two thousand years, how many beings, satyrs or humans, have heard from Pan?"

"Only Mister Underwood. Where are you going with this, Summers?"

"Simple, Silenus. Before Grover, you lost many satyrs in the search for Pan, with no results. Since him, you haven't lost a single satyr, and Pan has actually spoken. Give him some more time, and Pan _will_ be found."

"Do you honestly believe that, boy?"

"Yes, I do. Recently, I've been seeing visions of an extremely old satyr, and a maze. I believe that very soon, Pan will be found, and Grover will be the one to find him." I didn't add in that I only received that vision because I was looking for hope when it came to Nico, or that he had also been in the vision.

"So we're supposed to listen to the deluded ravings of a fifteen-year-old boy. One that shouldn't even be alive."

I was so furious at him that I accidentally caused the sky to thunder at his words. Or maybe Father did that because he wasn't very happy with the satyr. Biting my lips to keep any dangerous remarks back, I argued logically. "If you remember, Leneus, one of the epithets of my father is 'Far-seeing Jove.' It is believable that he would send me visions if he wanted Pan found. Pan is, after all, technically my nephew, the son of my brother Hermes."

The Council quietly discussed it, and decided to allow Grover a small extension of one week to find Pan. Grover started complaining, but I pulled him aside. "Grover, which would you rather have, one more week, or a new job?" He relented, and the Council split up, their meeting over. I decided to head to my cabin, and talk to Jason. "Oh, Iris! Accept my offering. Jason Grace." This time, Jason was in what looked like a Roman villa. "Hey, Jason."

"Hi, Alex. How's it going over there?"

"Not bad. Grover's a little upset, though."

"Oh? What about?"

"The Council of Cloven Elders have given him a week to find Faunus, the god of the wild." Fortunately, during our conversations, Grover had come up several times, and I had been shocked to learn that despite their usefulness among the Greeks, among the Romans they were utterly despised, and usually annoying beggars.

"A week? To find a god that's been missing for nearly two thousand years? Are they crazy?"

"You'd think that, wouldn't you? But I think that they're jealous of him. See, Grover got rid of the main reason that fauns never returned from the search, and then about a week after we met, he said that he heard Faunus speak to him. The Council doesn't believe that Faunus would speak to him, so they want him off the search ASAP."

"I can believe that. All those who gain power are afraid to use it."

"What do you mean?"

"The Council is in charge of everything that the fauns do, right? And if they found Faunus, they would lose that power."

"You do realize that you just quoted one of the most infamous villains in modern fiction, right?"

"Sometimes, it's the villains who offer the best quotes. Besides, as I recall, you once said that the best lies are those that are mixed in with truth. From that point of view, even the worst villain can speak truths."

"Good point. Hey, are you ever going to tell me where your camp is?"

"All I'm allowed to say is that we're south of the _dormum lupus_ , and close enough to Mount Tam to keep an eye on it. Why do you ask?"

"I've been having visions recently. Some of them have to do with Faunus, some with Saturn, and others to do with you and Percy. Something tells me that we're going to need to know where each other's camps are, and soon. Hey, I just remembered something. Do you have a library at your camp?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because I was hoping to do some research on the Gigantomachy, but all our books are in Greek. I can't read Greek that well, and I was hoping that you might be willing to send me a Latin copy."

"All right, but how would I do that?"

"Mercury, how else? He's got to be the only messenger that could get something from one camp to the other."

"All right. Good luck, Alex. May the Fates smile on you."

"And may Victoria grant you victory." That had become our usual farewell, wishing each other luck in our lives. Fortunately, we had good timing, as I noticed Silena Beauregard coming towards my cabin, with the inspection checklist. She was just leaving the Mars . . . err, Ares cabin and making quick progress. I wasn't worried about it, until I turned to the small alcove where Thalia had stayed after we rebuilt the cabin six months ago. I never understood why she got herself a sleeping bag and hid in that alcove, especially when there were plenty of unused beds in the cabin. Anyway, Thalia had left her alcove a mess, covered in garbage, empty soda cans, and a handful of photos. I burned the garbage, gathered up the cans for the satyrs, then I started on the photos. Two were of Annabeth and Luke, then there was a strip of photos from a do-it-yourself photo booth. But it was the last two that shocked me. One had a fairly attractive woman standing next to a man, a man I knew to be Jupiter, the Roman version of my father. The final photo was of an eleven-year-old Thalia with a three-year-old boy that I thought I knew. If I hadn't known better, I'd have sworn that it was Jason. The same blond hair, same sky-blue eyes, the same scar on his lip. I hid that one inside my jacket, and pinned up the others.

I finished just in time. I had barely finished tacking the photos up when Silena came in. "Hmm, not bad Alex. Not bad at all. I had my doubts, considering Thalia, but you did well. By the way, do you know anything about the large cat that's been running around camp for the past few months?"

"Large cat? You mean an orange tabby, stripes like a tiger, and unusually large canines?"

"Yes, that's it. You _do_ know it, don't you?"

"Bast. How did she get out? Where is she?"

"She's in my cabin. She's cute, but won't quit whining, unless I'm around her. Where did you get her?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"Alright. Remember a few months ago when the Hunters stopped by, and we went on that quest to save Artemis and Annabeth?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, Percy and I made a stop in DC while we were there, we found Atlas in the Natural History Museum, where he was trying to create some monsters."

"You mean those skeleton warriors that killed Bianca."

"Exactly. Anyway, the guard brought him the wrong teeth at first, and Bast and her siblings were the result. I'm not sure what happened to the others. I thought that they were cute then, and wanted to grab one, but we had to save the others. About five days later, I found Bast in the Junkyard of the Gods in Arizona, and hid her in my pocket. I've had her ever since."

"Interesting. Well, when you get a chance, would you mind picking her up? And make sure that you keep her in your cabin from now on."

"No problem."

* * *

At breakfast the next morning, I noticed that Annabeth and Grover were sitting at the Poseidon table with Percy. I knew it had to be about something important, so I decided to join them. "Alright, what's gotten you two to break the rules and sit with Percy today?"

"The Labyrinth. Chiron wants Grover to use it to find Pan. You can get anywhere in the Labyrinth."

"If you don't get lost. And die a horrible death." Grover started arguing with Annabeth, and in the course of the argument, we learned that Clarisse had been in the Labyrinth, as had Chris Rodriguez, another traitorous son of Merc . . . err, Hermes. Clarisse made it out basically unharmed, but Chris had gone insane. We also found out that Luke was looking for Ariadne's string, a sure way through the Labyrinth to wherever you wanted to go.

That got my attention. "Grover, if it can lead you to Pan, then try it! This is your last chance! So what if it's underground? If you don't try it, your dream will be dead! What do you have to lose?" Grover refused to even think about it. Then a horrifying thought occurred to me: what if there was an entrance to the Labyrinth here? That would allow an entire army of monsters to get into Camp and completely ignore our borders. Unless we took care of that, we could be in serious trouble.

That night, Quintus and Chiron had us suit up, as if for Capture the Flag, but I knew that couldn't be it. Capture the Flag only happened on Fridays, and it was only Wednesday. Then Quintus shouted "All right, gather 'round. You will be divided into teams of two." I looked to Percy, planning on having him be my partner, until Quintus said, "Which have already been chosen. Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silver package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silver package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And of course . . . you will have to slay the monster to get it, and to stay alive." Then he started announcing the teams: Charlie with Silena, the Stolls, Clarisse with Lee, Annabeth with Percy, Grover with Tyson (interesting selection, considering they were scared of each other,) and so on, until he got to me. "Alex Summers with Drew Tanaka." _WHAT?_ My greatest nightmare, being stuck with one of the useless children of Aphrodite, and to make it even worse, she absolutely _loathed_ me.

"Alright, Garbage Boy, I hope that you have a plan to take care of this."

"Listen, Drew. Let's do each other a favor. You ignore me, I'll ignore you, and we'll both come out of this alive and sane. If you don't want to listen, I'll lead you straight to one of the monsters, and _if_ you survive, I'll do to you what I did to Clarisse last year, _got it?_ " I then walked up to Charlie and Silena. "Hey, would you guys want to work with me?"

"What, and have you steal the credit? No thanks, Nygma."

"No way, Silena. If we do work together, it'll be just so I can find a monster for you. I don't want Drew to get _any_ credit in this. I'll be quite happy with knowing that you two made it through. If you want, I'll swear on the Styx to give you the credit. So, what do you say?" They quietly discussed it, and then decided to let me take the lead. I quickly caught the scent of a monster, heading towards Zeus' Fist. But I also caught the scent of Percy and Annabeth in that direction. I silently debated with myself on rather or not to tell them, and decided that they'd probably want to know, just in case Percy and Annabeth didn't get it.

When we made it to Zeus' Fist, we found _three_ giant scorpions. "Charlie, Silena! Cover me, I'm going to try and get rid of the pincers!" They nodded, Silena slicing at the stinger, Charlie keeping the other two at bay. Eventually, the tree of us were able to take down all three scorpions, and luckily, we found the gold wreath. "Here you go, Charlie. You guys deserve it."

"Thanks, Alex."

"WHAT? You gave them the wreath? Why in Hades would you do that?"

"Drew, SHUT UP! You did absolutely nothing during this, so why should you get a say in who gets the credit? Besides, even if you _did_ have a vote, they'd _still_ get the credit, because I promised them they'd get the credit."

"Why should I do this when those quests are stupid, foolish, and a waste of time?"

"Really, Drew? If that's how you feel, then why come to camp in the first place? If you're not going to contribute, then why don't you just _stay home_?" She kept quiet after that, and didn't say a word when Chiron congratulated Silena and Charlie for their victory.

Then Chiron noticed something, "Where are Percy and Annabeth?" No one had seen them since the start of the competition. We looked for them for nearly an hour. I focused my search around Zeus' Fist, but I couldn't find a trace of their scent leaving the Fist. Then they just popped up in front of me. "Yah! Annabeth, how many times do I have to tell you, warn me before you become visible again!"

"Huh? What are you talking about? I wasn't invisible."

"Then where did you come from? We've been looking for you guys for nearly an hour!"

Percy was shocked. "An hour? But it's only been a few minutes since we hid from the scorpions!"

"What happened?"

"We were here, and three scorpions came after us. I saw a hole in Zeus' Fist and we tried hiding in there. But when we got in there, we fell into a hole. We found ourselves in a corridor, and couldn't get out until Annabeth found a Delta. Then we got out."

"A corridor, with an exit marked by a Delta? You've found it, haven't you, Annabeth?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we did."

"What? What did we find?"

"An entrance to the Labyrinth, cuz. An invasion route straight into the heart of camp. A route that completely bypasses the magical borders. Something that even monsters could use."


	3. Annabeth Breaks the Rules

**Chapter III: Annabeth Breaks the Rules**

That night, I decided to go over Phoebe's prophecy and see what was left to be fulfilled. _Delphi shall cause worry_ , _And four will stand empty_. Check, until Percy and I were claimed, Jupiter and Neptune's cabins were empty, just like the two goddesses that didn't have demigod kids. _The Oracle, the Rich One shall bind_ , _To one body she will be confined_. I guessed that that was why the Oracle wasn't moving on. But who was the Rich One? The next lines were a little hard to pin down, so I skipped them. _The first seal broken: A symbol of power stolen_. Luke did that two and a half years ago.

 _Two half-bloods of the eldest gods, Shall reach sixteen against all odds_ , _One of the sea, accused of theft_ , _One of the air, of mortal parents bereft_ , _The first claimed as a final gambit_ , _The second, on the final night_ , _United from birth_ , _The truth they shall unearth, The second seal broken: Betrayal by a friend._ That had mostly been fulfilled. Percy and I were the children of Jupiter and Poseidon. Percy was claimed as a final gamble to save his dad from a war, I was claimed on the last night of our first summer. We were born the same day (neither of us had thought to ask what time we'd been born,) and we'd discovered Saturn's plan to rise. And we'd been betrayed by Luke, someone we'd both called friend.

 _The third seal broken:_ _The guardian tree poisoned_ , _The Daughters of War lose their home, But gain new ones in the West, One a Queen among Women, The other, a leader of the West_ , _The great General shall be freed_ , _The betrayer carries his burden_ , _The fourth seal broken:_ _A virgin huntress shall bear the sky_ , _But beware mighty Titan,_ _A Gorgon shall imprison you forever_. All checks. Thalia's tree had been poisoned, Reyna and Hylla (daughters of the Roman goddess of war, Bellona) had lost their home with Circe. Afterwards Reyna had joined Camp Jupiter in the First Cohort and was going to run for Consul soon, while Hylla had become queen of the Amazons-according to Jason anyways. General Atlas had been freed by Luke, only for Diana to take it later. Then Percy, Diana and I had trapped Atlas under his burden forever when I'd turned the head of Stheno on him.

 _The Crooked One shall rise once more_ , _And among the minor gods increase his rapport_ _The fifth seal broken:_ _The Labyrinth invaded_. The Labyrinth invaded, well, I'd felt the familiar tug that warned me when a seal was broken a few months ago, so I could only assume that Luke had sent soldiers in. As to the Crooked One, aka Saturn, rising again and increasing his standing with the minor gods, well, that was why Javier was going out to check on Thanatos.

 _A rejected son shall seek solace_ , _And ally himself with the prisoner who is formless_ , _The sixth seal broken:_ _The Crooked One lives again_ , _Eldest son of wisdom, shall finally fall to death_ , _And destroy the great maze with his final breath_. Now this part had _not_ come to pass yet, which meant that it had to be coming soon. I didn't like the idea of Saturn living again. And what did it mean by the eldest son of wisdom shall _finally_ fall to death? Who could it mean? I knew it meant a child of Athena, but how could Quintus destroy the Labyrinth with "his final breath"?

The next day, Chiron called a meeting of the counselors. When I got there, Chiron had taken his usual place, while Quintus took D's spot. Representing the cabins were: Percy for Neptune, Clarisse - Mars, Annabeth - Minerva, Lee Fletcher - Apollo, Charlie - Vulcan, Silena - Venus, and the Stolls for Mercury. To my surprise, Grover, Tyson, Argus, and Juniper, Grover's dryad girlfriend, had also shown up. "Luke must have known about the Labyrinth entrance. He knew everything about camp."

"That's what I was trying to tell you last night. The cave entrance has been there a long time. Luke used to use it." Well, if Juniper said that it's been there a long time, than you knew it was true. As a dryad (tree nymph,) she measured time quite differently than we did. To them, a six-month nap was nothing, if a dryad said something had taken a long time, they meant _years_.

Annabeth said that Luke was probably after Ariadne's string, the one way to safely navigate the Labyrinth. The thing was, she mentioned that Luke would need to _convince Daedalus_ , as if he was still alive. Chiron seemed to hint that Daedalus might still be alive, even after more than three thousand years. "We need to go in. We have to find the workshop before Luke does. If Daedalus is alive, we convince him to help us, not Luke. If Ariadne's sting still exists, we make sure that it never falls into Luke's hands."

Then Percy came up with a good idea. "Wait a second. If we're worried about an attack, why not just blow up the entrance? Seal the tunnel?"

"It's not that easy, stupid. We tried that at the entrance we found in Phoenix. It didn't go well."

"The Labyrinth is magical architecture, Percy. It would take huge power to seal even one of it's entrances. In Phoenix, Clarisse demolished a whole building with a wrecking ball, and the maze entrance only shifted a few feet. The best we can do is prevent Luke from learning to navigate the Labyrinth."

"Wait a minute. You said it would take a lot of magical power to destroy the entrance, right?"

"Yes. What are you thinking, Alex?"

"Well, I've got something that could work. I recently gained a divine weapon, the bow that once belonged to my brother, Hercules. I was told that it had nearly unlimited potential." Of course, I had only learned that when I read the note that had come with the bow … one that also included instructions, of course.

"Not bad, Alex. But what if there are entrances besides the one at Zeus' Fist? Or paths that lead directly to Olympus? We need to go in." I had to give Annabeth that. We quickly decided that Annabeth should be the one to lead the quest. About thirty minutes later, Annabeth finally came down with the prophecy. "It said: _You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze; The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise; You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand; the child of Athena's final stand._ " Grover was excited about the part about "the lost one raise." He was sure it meant Pan. But the last line had us worried, until I thought of something. Phoebe's prophecy said that the "eldest son of Athena" would die around now. Which meant that it _couldn't_ be Annabeth. The ghost king was obvious, at least for Percy, Annabeth and myself. Who could it be but Nico di Angelo, son of Hades?

"Are there more lines? The prophecy does not sound complete."

Annabeth reluctantly gave us one more line. " _Destroy with a hero's final breath._ Look, the point is I have to go in. I'll find the workshop and stop Luke. And . . . I need help." She turned first to Percy. "Will you come?"

Percy didn't hesitate. "I'm in."

"Grover, you too? The wild god is waiting." Grover completely forgot about his fear of being underground in his excitement and gladly said yes. "Tyson, I'll need you too." Tyson was more excited than I'd ever seen him. "And I don't think I need to ask you, Alex."

"Of course not, Annabeth. Not even Tellus herself could stop me from coming." Although, I had to admit that there was a reason I wanted to go besides the fact that Percy and Annabeth were going. I was really hoping that I'd have more luck finding Nico than looking on my own, and my dream about Nico _did_ include them in it.

"Wait Annabeth. This goes against the ancient laws. A hero is allowed only two companions."

"I need them all. Chiron, this is important."

"Annabeth, consider well. You would be breaking the ancient laws, and there are always consequences. Last winter, five went on a quest to save Artemis. Only three came back. Think about that. Three is a sacred number. There are three Fates, three Furies, three Olympian sons of Kronos, and in Alex's belief system, there are three personalities of God. It is a good strong number that stands against many dangers. Five . . . this is risky."

"I know. But we have to."

"Well then think about it this way, Chiron: Annabeth has only three demigods with her. And we _will_ return with six, two sets of three." To be honest, I didn't really know that, but I hoped so. And I think Chiron knew that I didn't know. "Besides, I've read the ancient laws, and there is _nothing_ in it about how many companions a hero can have. Hercules had _one_ companion at most, Jason had a literal shipload of companions. Theseus had one _mortal_ companion, and Perseus had none. The 'two companions' rule is strictly tradition, and only here." Chiron reluctantly bowed to my answer, and Annabeth's stubbornness and we prepared to leave. Before we completely split up, I pulled Annabeth toward the volleyball court.

"What is it, Alex? Why did you pull me here?"

"I need to know something, and I realized that you wouldn't speak of it in front of Chiron or Percy. So, I decided to get you alone. What are the final two lines of the prophecy?"

"Alex, please don't . . . please don't make me tell you."

"You're telling me, or else we're not leaving here."

She stayed silent for nearly half an hour, before realizing that I was serious. "All right, but you owe me. _Destroy with a final breath, And lose a love to a fate worse than death._ Happy now?"

"Oh. No wonder you didn't want Chiron or Percy to hear that line. Who do you think it is, Luke or Percy?"

"What are you talking about, Alex?"

"The love you lose to a fate worse than death. It's either Percy or Luke, so who do you think it is?"

"I am not in love with Percy Jack- . . . is it that obvious?"

"Yeah, it is. Nico saw it after, what, five or ten minutes? Same with Luke, especially if you talk to Thalia."

That night, I played _Perseus_ from the _Clash of the Titans_ soundtrack in order to trigger a vision of our quest. Fortunately it worked perfectly. _I was standing on the summit of Mount Othrys, and Luke was standing in front of me, but it wasn't Luke. His presence was more like that of Saturn, and his eyes were gold. He was furious and yelled "AFTER THEM!" I looked, and I saw Annabeth, some girl I didn't know, and Nico standing inside a doorway. Nico yelled something, and a wall of obsidian rock rose, sealing the door just after Percy got inside . . ._

_I was inside a cavern, looking at an ancient satyr. "Dear Grover, you must accept the truth. Your companion, Nico, he understands."_

" _He's dying. He should have died long ago. This . . . this is more like a memory . . ."_

_I was standing near Zeus' Fist, and there was a battle raging. Nico was standing near one of the fronts, and he was saying, "Serve me." The earth trembled, a fissure opened, and a dozen zombie soldiers rose to join the battle._

When I woke up the next morning, I was ecstatic. We _were_ going to get Nico back! I was going to do my best to see that he knew he was welcome here, at least by me. That being a son of Hades didn't matter to me, he was still family. Family, humph, Nico was just about the only person I would willingly call family, unless I decided to call him ... no, I wouldn't go there, not now. Well, the sooner I get going, the sooner I find Nico, and the sooner Saturn is denied his prize.


	4. We Meet My Wicked Step-Mother

I was on my way to meet with Annabeth and the others, when I ran into Javier. "Hey, Javier! Welcome back. How'd your quest go?"

"Not well."

"So Letus is on Sat-err, Kronos' side?"

"No, he's staying out of it. He said 'Death doesn't choose sides.' But I met someone else."

"Who?"

"My half-sister, Nemesis. She's joined Kronos, and even tried to get me to join. She said she was going to bring glory to the minor gods by bringing the Big Twelve down."

"Ouch. You're right, that isn't good news. Invidia isn't someone that you want to get on the bad side of." Then I noticed that we walking in the same direction. "Hey, why are you going to Zeus' Fist?"

"Chiron wants me to guard the entrances, just in case Kronos attacks while you're gone. What, I can't go just because I want to?"

"No, I never said that. I was just curious."

A few hours later, the five of us were in the Labyrinth, and completely lost. Just as we thought we had a way to navigate the Labyrinth, it changed to make that hope useless. Then we hit something that had a mosaic of the Olympians, with a Latin label. "Roman. This room is definitely Roman. The Labyrinth's been busy."

"How did you know that, Nygma? You're right, but how?"

"Simple, Wise Girl. The note says "Gods celebrating the defeat of Saturn," or as you know him, Kronos."

"How did you know that? _I_ didn't know that!"

"Well, let's just say that I've been given a good reason to brush up on my Roman mythology. Besides, my Greek hasn't improved since my first summer, yet I have always been able to read Latin as easily as Julius Caesar."

"Hmm, interesting. But not important right now. We need to keep going." We kept going down that corridor, but it soon became something approaching modern, so Annabeth had us turn around, back to the Roman room. But this time, there was someone waiting for us. A man with two faces.

"Hello, Janus. What are you doing here?" I asked.

"My job," one face said

"Offering choices," the other said. "Well, Annabeth? Hurry up."

"Don't mind him. He's extremely rude. This way, miss."

Tyson frowned, trying to understand him. "The funny man has two faces."

"The funny man has ears, you know! Now come along, missy."

"No, no. This way miss. Talk to _me_ , please."

That's when we noticed that the door we came in through was gone, replaced by two wooden doors with huge iron locks. And Janus was holding the key. "The exits are closed. Where do they go?"

"One leads to where you want to go, probably."

"The other leads to certain death!"

"Why are you trying to confuse me?"

"Simple, Wise Girl. That's what he does. He _says_ he offers choices, but all he does is create indecision. He's your best friend, and worst enemy. Beginning and ending, that's Janus all over," I explained.

"Your turn is coming soon, sons of Poseidon and Jupiter. But right now, it's Annabeth's turn. Such fun!"

"Shut up! This is serious. One bad choice can ruin your life. It can kill you and all your friends. But no pressure, Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. We are who we choose to be, now choose!"

But before she could make her choice, a flash of light appeared, and an old hag stepped forth. This time, as soon as I recognized _her_ , I let myself see her through the Mist, just to see what it was like. This time, I saw a tall, graceful woman with long, chocolate hair, braided in gold. _She_ was _fairly_ attractive, and wore a white silk dress that shimmered like oil on water. "As much as I hate to say it, I agree with my step-son. Janus, the girl's time has not come yet. So, I give _you_ a choice: leave these heroes to me, or I'll turn you into a door!" Janus convinced himself it was in his best interest, and left as quickly as _she_ had shown up. "You must be hungry. Sit with me and talk."

"You swear on the Styx not to poison my food, my _dear_ step-mother?"

 _She_ glared at me. "Very well, Alexander. _I, Juno, swear on the Styx not to try to kill you until you've met my swords and my priest_ ," she swore in Latin

Percy finally spoke up. "Who . . . who are you?"

The venom in my voice when I introduced her was as obvious as the Kraken. "Percy, Annabeth, this is my _beloved_ ," I stressed the sarcasm on that word, "step-mother, Juno, aka Hera, Queen of Olympus." The wicked witch then made a large number of sandwiches, bags of chips, and a large pitcher of lemonade appear, and we sat down to eat. When I reached for some sandwiches, she always made them ham. Yuck. I made do with a handful of ambrosia.

"Queen Hera. I can't believe it! What are you doing in the Labyrinth?"

She flicked her finger, and cleaned Annabeth's hair. "I came to see you, naturally." When I heard that, I suddenly became extremely nervous, and glad I'd made _her_ swear not to kill me. It wasn't a good thing when a god looked you up, especially when that god/goddess has a major temper issue and doesn't like demigods. And believe me, _Juno_ does have a short fuse, and it was dangerous to be around _her_ if she lost it.

"I didn't think-well, I didn't think you liked heroes."

"Oh, Annabeth, she likes heroes well enough, don't you? She just doesn't like _demigod_ heroes, especially me and my siblings."

"Quite right, Alexander. I was the patron goddess of Jason, when he went looking for the Golden Fleece. But I don't mind demigod heroes. Seriously, I got so much bad press about that _one_ spat with Heracles."

"Didn't you try to kill him lots of times though?"

"Water under the bridge, my dear. Besides, he was my husband's son with _another_ woman. My patience wore thin, I'll admit it. But Zeus and I have had some excellent marriage counseling since then. We've aired our feelings and come to an understanding-especially after that last little incident."

"Which incident, Jason or me? Besides, from what I've heard, you've actually had a mortal before either of us were born." Okay, so I was stupid, provoking _her_ like that. But, I didn't like the fact that _she_ was being a hypocrite now, considering she had two demigods at the Roman camp.

"Jason? My children? How did you . . . Never mind. At any rate, I don't bear _most_ of you any ill will, my girl. I appreciate the difficulty of your quest, especially when you have troublemakers like Janus to deal with."

"Why was he here? He was driving me crazy!"

"Trying to. You must understand, the minor gods like Janus have always been frustrated by the small parts they play on Earth. Some, I fear, have little love for Olympus, and could easily be swayed to support the rise of my father."

"Invidia has already declared. Her allegiance lies with Saturn."

 _She_ stared at me. "How did you know that? Dionysus hasn't returned from his trip checking on them."

"I have a demigod friend, Javier Vargas, he's a son of Nyx. The wine dude hired him to check on Letus, and Invidia tried to win him over to Saturn." That got me thinking. If the minor gods were won over to Saturn, then that would include Morpheus, god of sleep. _They shall see the world in endless sleep_.

"I see. That does sound like Dionysus. You see, in times of trouble, even gods can lose faith. They start putting their trust in the wrong things, petty things. They stop seeing the big picture and start being selfish." _Start_ being selfish? Since when did they stop? "But I'm the goddess of marriage, you see. I'm used to perseverance. You have to rise above the squabbling and chaos, and keep believing. You have to always keep your goals in mind."

Percy asked, "And what are _your_ goals?"

"Why, to keep my family, the Olympians together, of course." Humph, she didn't do so well a job at that, considering me meeting Jason was the first contact between our camps in who knows how long. "At the moment, the best way I can do that is by helping you. Zeus does not allow me to interfere much, I'm afraid. But once every century or so, for a quest I care deeply about, he allows me to grant a wish."

"A wish?" I couldn't blame Percy for not believing that. I'd never known _her_ to be nice to _any_ demigod, let alone grant a wish.

"Before you ask it, let me give you some advice, which I can do for free. I know you seek Daedalus. His Labyrinth is as much a mystery to me as it is to you. But if you want to know his fate, visit my son, Hephaestus at his forge. Daedalus was a great inventor, a mortal after Hephaestus' own heart. There has never been a mortal Hephaestus admired more. If anyone would have kept up with Daedalus and knows his fate, it's Hephaestus."

"But how do we get there?" Annabeth asked. "That is my wish. I want a way to navigate the Labyrinth."

I couldn't believe it, but _she_ actually looked disappointed. "So be it. You wish for something, however, that you have already been given."

"I don't understand."

"The means is already within your grasp. Percy knows the answer." Huh? Percy? _Percy_ knows how to navigate the Labyrinth? She couldn't have shocked me more if she hugged me and treated me like a god.

Percy looked just as shocked. "I do?"

"But that's not fair. You're not telling us what it is!"

"Getting something and having the wits to use it . . . those are two different things. I'm sure your mother, Athena would agree. Besides, hasn't anyone told you, life isn't fair. Think on what I said, Annabeth. Seek out Hephaestus. You will have to pass through the ranch, I imagine. But keep going. And use any means at you disposal, no matter how common they may be. One last thing. I have postponed your day of choice. I have not prevented it. Soon, as Janus said, you _will_ have to make choice. Farewell."

"Well, _she_ sure wasn't much help, not that I expected different," I said in disgust.

For once, Grover was optimistic. "Well, she said Percy knew the answer. That's something."

"So, which way now?"

Tyson, Grover and I tensed up at the same time. Then, almost as we had rehearsed it, we rose as one and said, "Left."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Monster to the right. A big one, and it's in a hurry." Grover and Tyson agreed. So we ran to the left, right into a dead end Luckily, Tyson was able to break a hole into a new room, and we sealed the monster behind us.

"What the Hades?" We turned around, and found ourselves in a twenty-foot-square cell, that looked vaguely familiar. Then I looked out the window. "Guys, we're back in California. We're in Alcatraz Prison."


	5. Welcome to Alcatraz and Triple G Ranch

We had barely gotten used to the idea that we were in Alcatraz when Tyson heard something that shocked him. He got us out, and it was then that we spotted it. A half woman, half reptile that sprouted snakes, and wasn't completely formed. Tyson quickly identified her as Kampe, the former jailer of Tartarus, back when the only inmates were Uranus, Cyclopes, and the Hecatonchires. Percy then had Tyson translate what she and someone else was saying. "You will work for the massster or sssufer the consequences."

"I will not serve."

"Then I shall enjoy your pain, Briares." Tyson actually fell out of character when he spoke that name, something he _never_ did. "If you thought your first imprisonment was unbearable, you have yet to feel real torment. Think on this until I return." Then Kampe flew away, and we went to the cell.

What we found in there, was one of the Hecatonchires, literally Hundred-Handed Ones. We quickly figured out that he had lost hope. "Come on, Briares. Let's get you out of here."

"I cannot. She will punish me."

"She can't punish you if you're not here to punish, Briares."

He seemed to consider that, then Percy decided to challenge him to a game of rock, paper scissors. I looked at him like he was crazy, but he winked at me and I knew what he was going to do. How could I not? I taught him the trick. Briares reluctantly agreed and came up with all three. Percy cheated though, by choosing a gun. "Demigods are cheaters." We left the cell and walked straight into Kampe. For once, Briares ran ahead of us, as we tried to escape her. I tried shooting her with my bow, but the arrows just made her madder. Then I decided to forget about using my basic arrows and started looking for my special arrows. Then I grabbed one and shot her in her human heart. She screamed in pain, and stopped, buying us a few more minutes. "Returno!" I shouted, and the arrows returned. Then I saw Mount Othrys. "The storms are worse. They've been bad all year, but this-"

"Alex, how did you know about the storms?"

"Simple, Annabeth. I've got a demigod friend that lives around here year-round. He's been giving me updates and-RUN!"

"Run? He's been giving you updates, and run?"

"Kampe's out! Come on!" This time, she was wielding two bronze scimitars, surrounded by a green poison. "Damn. Why is it that it's always the monsters that get the poisons?"

"Shut up, Nygma and run!" Unfortunately, Kampe quickly caught up, and Tyson had to face her to buy us more time. We quickly found our way back to the cell we came in at and decided to escape into the Labyrinth.

"Briares, how was Kampe defeated the first time?"

"First time, Zeus killed her."

"With his Master Bolt?"

"No, then he had only a sword. Cyclops made the Bolt afterwards." Then Tyson came running towards us, with Kampe just behind him. I pulled out my Bow, just as Percy threw his shield at her. And just before the door closed, I shot her in the mouth. Unfortunately, it wasn't powerful enough, as she slammed against the door over and over, until we left; we'd had enough of Kampe, former jailer of Tartarus. After that, I vowed to test out the limits of the bow, because somehow, I knew that I had barely scratched what it could do.

We stopped near a deep pit, that Briares said went down to Tartarus. Kampe had scared him enough that he wanted to kill himself. And when Tyson asked about his brothers, Briares said that they had faded, which meant that they were _dead_ dead, never coming back no matter what. "Briares, how would you like to get back at Kampe for your torture without ever getting close to her, and redeem yourself in Tyson's eyes?"

"How would I do that?"

"Simple. You could go to our camp and help us out. You could hurt Saturn's chances without ever getting close to Kampe. Or you could join the cyclops in the forges. What do you think?"

"I cannot demigod. I do not have a finger gun to win this game." Percy decided to pull him aside, hopefully to give him his own reason for Briares to help us. I turned and noticed that Tyson was crying. "Hey, it's all right, big guy."

"It is not all right, Alex. He was my hero."

Ah, that's why. The Hecatonchires were his heroes, and he just saw the last one fail. "Listen, Tyson. Sometimes, heroes don't measure up to their legend, and they disappoint us. But that doesn't mean that they stop being our heroes. You still admire Briares for what he was, right?"

"Yes."

"Well then, in that sense he is still your hero. If your hero doesn't measure up, then just focus on what made him/her your hero in the first place."

Tyson thanked me, and then Annabeth had us keep moving. "Alex, would you mind walking with me for a few seconds?"

"Sure, Annabeth." I slowed down so Percy and the others were about ten feet in front of us. "What is it?"

"I just wanted to thank you for what you told Tyson. That was really thoughtful."

"Hey, it's the truth. You wouldn't believe how many heroes I've had that had that didn't measure up. My first hero was a great warrior and musician but had a weakness for women. My next hero was the wisest man in the world and wrote down some of his sayings, but he had the same problem as my first hero. My next hero was like a reed in the wind. One moment, he was as courageous as a lion, the next he was as timid as a lamb."

"Jeez, it sounds like you need new heroes."

"Well, that's the problem with heroes, isn't it? As great as they are, they're still only human."

"Yeah, isn't it? Say, were any of them demigods?"

"No. None of them. Although, some people would think that Shlomo was a son of Athena."

"Who?"

"Sorry. Shlomo is the Hebrew form of Solomon."

"Solomon, you mean the author of Proverbs? Are all your heroes Jews?"

"Most of them. David, Solomon, Simon Peter, and Saul Paulus are all Jews, although Saul Paulus was a Roman citizen, and then I like Gaius Julius Caesar. Then my one other hero was Greek, but mortal and a favorite of your mother."

"Odysseus. Why do you like him?"

"Because even though he was mortal, he managed to become one of the most famous Greek heroes in history, behind only Hercules, Achilles and Perseus."

"You're weird, you know that? You talk down to mortals, yet every single one of your heroes is mortal. Why is that?"

"Simple. I don't know a single demigod, outside the two Percy's that have any qualities worth imitating. And I talk down to mortals because I know deep down, 90% of them want sex or violence." Annabeth kept quiet after that, and we caught up with the others.

* * *

_I dreamed that night of Nico and some ghost, at a ranch with red cows? The odd thing was that, I could have sworn I knew who the ghost was from my three-month stint in the mortal world before the poisoning of Thalia's tree. "You're sure that Geryon knows where he is?"_

" _Of course, master. Have I led you astray yet?"_

" _No. But as I have often heard, ghosts have their own agendas. Knowing that, how can I trust you? Knowing_ _ **you**_ _how can I trust you?"_

" _Because of what I've already done for you. As I said, have I ever led you astray? Figuratively or literally?"_

" _No, you haven't Minos. But you still have a history with him. How do I know you aren't doing this for your own benefit? How do I know that you won't want to trade his soul for yours?" Minos! Of course! The builder of the Labyrinth, and step-father to the Minotaur (Minos' bull.)_

" _I am dead. I have put the past behind me."_ _ **Sure**_ _, he had. I had just 'met' Minos, but I already didn't trust him. But what did Nico mean about Minos having a history with 'him'? If he was looking to trade a soul for a soul, then what was he talking about? I thought he'd want Percy's soul, or maybe mine, but he was clearly talking about someone who Minos knew._

* * *

When I woke up, we had a quick breakfast before heading out again. We quickly found our way into what appeared to be an abandoned mine shaft, where we found evidence of Nico raising the dead. "Ha! I knew that we'd find him down here. This is fresh, only a day or two old. He's near." I sniffed the air, and then pointed down a tunnel. "We need to go this way."

"Alex, we didn't come down here to find Nico. We came here to find Daedalus' workshop."

"Sure, Wise Girl. But Nico has a guide just as good as Ariadne's string. He has the ghost of Minos, and if Minos is leading Nico this direction, then we may find a way out. At the very least, we'll keep Nico out of Sat-err, Kronos' hands." I left it up to her, and Annabeth gave in, and let my nose lead the way. The way she figured it, at least it gave us a definite direction, and there was no guessing as to where to go. Oddly enough, I only had to lead us a short distance before we found ourselves at the ranch from my dream.

"Red cattle. The cattle of the sun."

I was shocked. "You mean Apollo's sacred cows? The ones that were slaughtered by Ulysses' men just before he lost his last ship and met Calypso?"

"The same."

"Huh. I thought they'd be on an island in the Sea of Monsters."

Percy pointed something out then. "Who says we aren't on an island? Who knows with the Labyrinth. We could be in the Sea of Monsters, or in the middle of Texas."

"Good point, Percy." Then I noticed something that seemed vaguely familiar, the sound of two dogs barking, combined with the smell of sulfur. Then we saw it, a 'Janus dog' as Tyson put it. Othrus, the two-headed dog that Nico had killed just before we left Westwood Military Academy last winter. Except this one was very different. The one Nico killed looked like a giant two-headed wolf, this one looked more like a greyhound. Then its' master came along. He was an enormous guy, solid muscle, but as ancient as the classic pictures of Father Time. I could have sworn there was something familiar about him, but I couldn't figure out what it was. That is, I couldn't until I saw the tattoo, a tattoo of two crossed swords.

"So, what did you find, Orthrus? Cattle rustlers?" Hmm, maybe Othrus and Orthrus were two different dogs. I hated the fact that their names were so similar though.

I spoke up before any of the others could. "No, sir. Fellow demigods, son of Ares. We're on a quest. This is Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, Grover the satyr, Tyson the Cyclops, and I'm Alex Julius, son of Zeus."

"So, I see. I am Eurytion, the cowherd for this ranch. You came in through the Labyrinth, like the other one I reckon."

"Other one? Do you mean Nico di Angelo? Is he still here?" I demanded.

"We get many visitors from the Labyrinth. Not many ever leave. I'm only gonna say this once, demigods. Get back in the maze before it's too late." To my surprise, Annabeth backed me up, and told Eurytion that we wouldn't leave before seeing the other demigod.

Eurytion led us through the ranch to the big house, having us pass by a number of odd creatures. More of Apollo's red cows, fire-breathing horses, a err stable (I think) that looked more like a manure pile, and creatures that I had no name or description for. When we finally arrived at the ranch house, I saw the most unusual guy I'd ever seen (I know, but he's still odd even considering Janus, Briares and Tyson.) He had one head and two arms like anyone else, but there the resemblance ended. He had three bodies, joined at the hip and arms, with six legs. Then I got the most pleasant shock of my life-Nico coming onto the porch from inside the house.

Unfortunately, he wasn't so happy to see us, or at least Percy. He drew his sword and claimed we were there to kill him. "Nico! How could you believe that? I gave Bianca my word that I'd protect you. I swore on the Styx that I'd protect you, even if it means I die in the process." Okay, so I didn't actually say _that_ , but I would do it. He hesitated at my words and put the sword back in its' sheath. But he still didn't trust Percy, and told him "If you come near me, Percy, I'll summon help. You don't want to meet my helpers, I promise." I gulped at that. Now, I was obviously fine with him being a son of Hades, but the thought of having to face more skeleton warriors scared me. I'd had enough of them last winter.

After making sure that no one was getting into a fight, Geryon took us on a tour of the ranch. He showed us his prize (and endangered) Hippalektryons (half horse, half rooster-don't ask,) that he raised for their eggs. Then he took us past Apollo's cattle that he raised to sell for beef. The last things he showed us were the fire-breathing and flesh-eating horses-war horses he told us. That's when it hit me. "You're working for Luke, aren't you?"

"Luke . . . Blonde-almost white hair, scar on one side of his face, dressed in the old style, unique sword?" Percy answered in the affirmative. "Never heard of him." Translation: yes, I'm working for him and I know I'm not supposed to. Annabeth was right, he _was_ a monster in the truest sense of the word, and not because he wasn't human. In one way, he was all _too_ human, willing to do anything for money. Nico reminded Geryon of their own deal, and Geryon apparently hadn't given him an answer. Geryon decided that he would lead Nico to the soul he wanted, _but_ he had another deal to take care of first.

"You see, Nico, Luke Castellan is offering very good money for half-bloods. Especially powerful half-bloods like yourselves. And I'm sure when he learns your little secret, he'll pay very, very well." When we heard that, Nico and I pulled our swords, but Eurytion knocked Nico's sword out of his hand and Orthrus lunged at Percy's throat. "I would stay in the car, all of you. Or Orthrus will tear out Mr. Jackson's throat. Now, Eurytion, if you would be so kind, secure Nico. Oh, and don't forget the swords. There's nothing I hate worse than Stygian Iron. Now, we've had the tour. Let's go back to the lodge, have some lunch, and send an Iris-message to our friends in the Titan army." He then turned to Annabeth and said, "Now, you my dear, don't need to worry. You and most of your party will be allowed to go. I'm not allowed to interfere with quests, usually. Besides, I have been paid a handsome amount to allow you safe passage. However, that does not include Mr. Julius or Mr. di Angelo."

Annabeth was confused. "Paid by whom? What do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious? Who would want your quest to succeed, and wants me and Nico dead or working for Luke? Only Juno. Juno hates me because I'm the son of Jupiter, and she hates Nico because he's the son of Hades, who is unreasonably despised by most of his family. But she's not willing to let your quest fail." Now I was starting to wonder if Hades actually had a poison to make immortals into mortals so I could use it against Juno. At least that would give me some peace and Hades would get a chance for a throne on Olympus, or maybe Hestia could get her throne back.

Then Percy decided to barter for our freedom by offering to clean the stables of the flesh-eating horses. If he cleaned them out by sunset, all six of us would go free, if not, we would all be sold to Luke. Nico and I tried to talk him out of it, but Percy was too stubborn. (Well, actually Nico said he didn't want Percy to do him any favors, but still.) Geryon led us back to the lodge, tied us up, and cooked some barbecue while we waited to learn Percy's fate.

_Hmm, another nice predicament you've gotten yourself into._

_Dad?_ I wasn't sure who it was. He kind of sounded like Jupiter, this guy had the same voice, the voice of someone used to power. But there was an accent there that sounded familiar, but definitely not Greco-Roman.

_Thank you for accepting the truth, even if it is off by a few hundred generations._

_Ra?_

_Yes._

_Why are you talking to me this time?_

_I cannot contact my only living descendant just because I want to talk to him?_

_That might work for an uninformed mortal, but not me. I know you were the Egyptian Pharaoh of the gods, and that you know the ancient laws as well as Jup ... err, Zeus. That means that you called me for a reason, seeing as how the ancient laws forbid contact between demigods and gods._

_You're right, I did contact you for a reason. But first, why did you start to say Jupiter and then switch to Zeus? From what I've observed, they are the same person, except for a slight personality change._

_I'm a Roman demigod in a Greek camp. Unfortunately, the Greeks and Romans have a lot of bad blood between them, so although my instincts tell me the Roman names, I have to say the Greek names, or risk becoming shunned at best or killed at worst. So, I've been trying to think in Greek terms, not Roman._

_Hmm, that does make sense. Nice thing about Egypt, we never had to worry about other cultures renaming us._

_Now that that is out of the way, I've got a quick question. When you first contacted me, you mentioned Apophis escaping. Since then I've been doing some research, and I found out that your cat is supposed to keep him too wounded to escape. How could Apophis escape your cat?_

_That is what I wanted to talk to you about. Do you remember your first dream about Egypt two years ago?_

_You mean the dream onboard the_ CSS Birmingham _? With the couple at Cleopatra's Needle in London?_

_Exactly. Ruby Kane was extremely powerful in divination, foretelling the future. She had seen that the Per Ankh would need the power of the gods to defeat Apophis and started by saving Bast from Apophis._

_Saving? What do you mean?_

_Bast was starting to lose the fight with Apophis. She could not heal as quickly as him, and so she was steadily growing weaker. Ruby died to save Bast and seal Apophis inside his prison. They will need help to complete their mission. On Christmas next year, I want you to go to London and find Dr. Julius Kane. He will lead you to the ones that can teach you to harness the power of an Egyptian magician._

_But I'm not an Egyptian magician! It's only thanks to you that I have any Egyptian blood in me._

_It is because you have my blood flowing through my veins that I know you are a magician. Most magicians are the descendants of magicians from the time of the Pharaohs. The most powerful ones are descendants of Pharaohs, such as the Kanes. You, on the other hand have my blood and the blood of two of my sons and as the son of Jupiter_ _**and** _ _the descendant of several other Pharaoh's, you will become a very powerful magician. Possibly powerful enough to bring me back as Pharaoh._

_Okay, but what if I can't find this Dr. Kane?_

_His children will go with their Uncle Amos to Brooklyn. Look for the mansion on top of a factory._

_Thanks, but Percy is back. I'll talk to you later, Ra._ First thing that Percy did was to try and get Geryon to free us, but Geryon went back on his word. "Did you make me swear on the River Styx? No, you didn't. So it's not binding. When you're conducting business, sonny, you should always get a binding oath." When Percy drew his sword, Geryon told Eurytion to kill him. Luckily Eurytion told him no (surprising, considering who his dad was,) so Geryon had to fight Percy himself.

Geryon threw a knife at Percy, which he deflected easily. He then pulled out two of his barbecue tools, but Percy got rid of them easily, just before stabbing him through his center heart. But Geryon didn't turn into sulfur dust, saying that he had the perfect backup system. That's when I got my brilliant idea. "Percy! What does he only have one of? Take care of that, and you've won!" Percy got the idea, and went after his head, but Geryon was too smart for that to work. Whenever Percy tried to take his head, Geryon would dodge just enough to avoid the sword or take the hit somewhere else. I decided that the best way to help Percy would be to get free. "Annabeth. Can you try to knock my spear over here?"

She looked over her shoulder and nodded. Annabeth moved herself over to the spear, stopped for a second and then hit it just above floor, knocking it over to me. I then tipped myself over, landing so the ropes tying my hands together landed on top of the point. I then managed to cut myself free, just in time to see Percy shoot Geryon through his three chests with only one arrow. "Percy! How . . . how in the world did you do that?"

"I think it was Apollo and Artemis. I think they guided my arrow." To show his thanks, Percy grabbed the biggest pieces of meat from the barbecue and offered it to them. Of course, that still left one small problem: what to do with Nico, considering his issues with us. "You could stay here until we finish our quest. It would be safe."

"No, Percy. He's supposed to come with us. I've seen it." Unfortunately, Nico didn't want to follow either suggestion. He still didn't trust Percy. He said that if we really wanted to help him, then we would help him bring Bianca back.


	6. Bianca and the Crazy Sphinx

Fortunately, we didn't have to do any work to dig the pit for the sacrifice for the dead. Apparently Geryon was investing in a new septic system and hadn't had the tank installed yet, so all we needed to do was fill it with food and drink. Once it was dark, Nico started chanting in ancient Greek, none of which I understood. But once he started chanting, the animals all went quiet and the temperature quickly fell. I looked to the others, and all of a sudden, I could understand why Hades didn't have a cabin at the camps. Everyone but me clearly felt _very_ uncomfortable while he was doing this. Personally, I didn't see anything wrong with it, after all, Odysseus (a mortal) and Aeneas (a son of Venus) both did it. It just seemed more natural when a son of Hades did it.

When the ghosts started coming to drink, Nico stopped chanting long enough to tell us to keep them back until Bianca came. Unfortunately, we were too late to keep Minos from drinking from the sacrifice. As soon as he took a drink, he apologized half-heartedly to Nico before turning to face Percy. "Percy Jackson ... my, my. The sons of Poseidon haven't improved over the centuries, have they? How is your dear brother, Theseus? I haven't seen him anywhere in the Underworld. Did Athena actually make him immortal, or has he cheated death like Daedalus has?"

"What are you talking about? I saw Nico talking to Theseus the night before we started our quest."

"Please, that wasn't Theseus. That was his barbarian friend, Pirithous. You think I wouldn't recognize the man who stole my daughter from me and killed my Minotaur? Pirithous has always been covering for Theseus, ever since he stole some of his cattle."

Ra then whispered into my mind _You can't trust that ghost, he's dangerous. Summon his_ sheut _and bind it to the_ shabti. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I followed his suggestion, quietly chanting in Ancient Egyptian as he guided me, until I felt _something_ bind to the statuette.

After a few more minutes of arguing, Minos left, and a silver light started approaching the sacrifice. "A Hunter of Diana, I mean, Artemis. Let her through." Annabeth stared at me when I said Diana, and I knew that I was going to be grilled about that later. The Hunter approached and drank, her form solidifying to that of Bianca, daughter of Hades. "Bianca, I'm so sorry."

"Don't blame yourself, Alex. You neither, Percy. I chose to stay to give you a chance. _The good of the many outweigh the good of the few, or the one_ , remember?" I smiled at that, despite myself, despite still feeling guilty. On our way south from camp to Washington, I told her about that fundamental truth of _Star Trek_ philosophy. Despite the fact that I valued my friends over everything else, I still found that it was valuable to others, and taught it to Bianca; and it ended up getting her killed. Then she turned to Nico. "Hello, Nico. You've gotten so tall."

"Why didn't you answer me sooner? I've been trying to talk to you for months!"

"I was hoping you would give up. What happened was what the Fates decreed must happen. It was _past_ my time to die, Nico. You must listen to me. Holding grudges is dangerous for a child of Hades, it is our fatal flaw. You have to learn how to forgive. You _must_ promise me this."

"I ... I can't. Not until I make it right."

"You must, Nico. Percy and Alex are right. They've both been worried about you. Alex has been acting extremely reckless just to protect you from Kronos. I've been trying to warn them about what you've been doing, hoping that they would find you." I was surprised. I hadn't received any messages from the Underworld. Or was she talking about my dreams about Nico that I hadn't triggered?

"Why have you been helping them and not me? It's not fair!"

"You are close to the truth now, Nico. It's not Percy or Alex that you're mad at. It's me, for leaving you." Nico denied it, but I could definitely believe it. At the game of Capture the Flag, Nico definitely seemed enthusiastic about fighting the Hunters. And in a book I read about loss, people would often direct their blame at a person that was close to them, when they actually blamed the person who died. Wait a minute, did that mean ...? Could he actually ...? Did I have a chance after all?

"You're mad at me for leaving you to become a Hunter of Artemis," Bianca continued. "You're mad because I died and left you alone. But you must overcome the anger. You should know that you are not alone, even though I am dead. I know that Percy cares about you, and Alex loves you. You must stop blaming them for my choices."

Annabeth broke in, saying "She's right, Nico. Kronos is rising, and he will twist anyone he can to his cause, using whatever means is necessary."

"I don't care about Kronos. All I want is my sister back."

"Don't you see, Nico? Sat-err, Kronos will offer you a chance to bring your sister back if it will get you to on his side. Would you really give up your father, or a chance for a brother or another sister, for Bianca? And you should know, dying changes a person."

Nico glared at me. "How would you know?"

"I lost my mother three years ago. Then a year later, the Golden Fleece brought her back. But it wasn't her."

"What do you mean?"

"Before she died, she was one of the sweetest people on Earth. My father called her _the_ queen of women. You could have just met her, and you would have loved her. She was even like that in the Underworld. Even your dad and step-mother loved her. But when she came back . . . it wasn't her, not really. She had become a scheming, treacherous, duplicitous, untrusting witch. That's what death can do to a person."

Then we noticed something. More spirits had come and gathered around us, and they seemed agitated. You know there's something _extremely_ dangerous coming if even _ghosts_ are scared. "Tartarus stirs," Bianca warned. "Your power draws the attention of Kronos. The dead must return to the Underworld. It is not safe for us to remain. Goodbye, Nico. I love you. Remember what I said."

For the rest of the night, I simply held Nico as he mourned, and finally said goodbye to Bianca. He eventually fell asleep on my lap, and I stayed up the night to watch over him. When he woke up the next morning, he seemed embarrassed. He washed up, and then asked me, "Was Bianca right? Do you really love me?"

I smiled, but inside I was panicking. I did love him, but I still wasn't sure if I was willing to take another chance with my heart. "Nico, since I lost my mother, I've had no blood relatives. That means I can choose who I treat as family. I've always considered Percy a brother. Since we came to camp, Annabeth has become my sister. And ever since I laid eyes on you, I knew you were someone that I would like. Since then, I have definitely grown to love you. And if you ever need to talk to someone about _anything_ , I will listen and support you, no matter what."

"Even though I'm a son of Hades?"

I grinned at him. "Nico, Nico, Nico. I've known you were a son of Hades since I ran into you inside the Lotus Casino. To me, you being a son of Hades just adds character. Your abilities are a part of you, don't ever be ashamed of them. But, would you please not threaten us with those zombie soldiers? If they're anything like the ones we had to deal with last winter, we'd be dead."

Nico laughed at that. "Oh, you don't have to worry about that. Only the sown men are nearly indestructible, and they are extremely difficult to summon. The dead that I summon are as vulnerable as you or me."

"Oh, well that's a relief. Say, you want to come with us? We could really use you."

"No thanks. I don't think the others are very comfortable around me. I saw the looks on their faces last night. They thought that was unnatural. Besides, I might mess with Tyson and Grover's sense of smell. Speaking of last night, why were you so comfortable with the ritual?"

"Eh, I was expecting something like it. If you ever read _The Odyssey_ or _The Aeneid,_ you'd find a reference to a ritual like it. If a mortal or a son of Venus could do it, it's obvious that a son of Pluto could do it."

"Son of Venus? What do you mean?"

"Oops. Sorry. Aeneas is the son of Venus, aka Aphrodite. I just used the Roman form considering _The Aeneid_ is the tale of the founding of Rome by survivors of Troy, as told by the Romans."

"Ah, that makes sense. And when you put it that way, I can understand why you'd be comfortable with it."

"Yeah, the only _un_ comfortable part was the silence. I'm used to hearing _something_ at night, even if it's just bugs."

"Thanks, Alex, though you should take that to heart for yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the fact that you called Artemis by her Roman name, Diana. That's obviously a part of you that you want to keep hidden. Don't, no matter what you think might happen. If the Roman names come more naturally, then say them." We talked like that for another five minutes, before Percy and the others came out, ready to continue the quest.

Before we left, I had a vision, and turned to face Nico. "Nico? When you're ready to join us, go to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs."

"How do you know that?"

"Just trust me right now, Nico. When we get back to camp, I'll explain. Good luck."

"Thanks. Good luck to you too." Eurytion said goodbye to us and gave us a gift. Apparently, Eurytion had helped Vulcan play a trick on Venus and Mars, and in thanks Vulcan had given him something to lead him to one of his forges. When Annabeth activated it, the silver disc turned into a metal spider, and I had a sudden suspicion about that 'trick' that Vulcan and Eurytion had played, it was probably the same one that Mars had us trip for him, back on our first quest.

The spider ran into the Labyrinth and we had to run to keep up with it. While we were running, Percy turned to me and asked, "Nico isn't coming with us?"

"Not yet. He realizes that you two aren't quite comfortable with him yet, and he's still mourning Bianca. He _will_ come with us eventually. I saw him meeting us at the Garden of the Gods. After that, he stays with us until after the Battle of the Labyrinth."

"Battle of the Labyrinth? What's that?"

"Sorry, it's something I saw in my last vision. Either we're going to fail to get Ariadne's string, or Luke gets another way to navigate the Labyrinth, because I saw an army of monsters invading the camp."

"Did you see the results?"

"No, I didn't, sorry." The spider led us across a chasm, and then into a room that looked like a graveyard of students-dozens of skeletons, surrounded by hundreds of broken pencils. Then I caught the scent of sulfur, very close by. I turned and saw what must be the test giver/teacher, a lion with the head of a woman, the Greek version of the Sphinx.

"Welcome, lucky contestants! Get ready to play . . . ANSWER THAT RIDDLE! Fabulous prizes! Pass the test and you advance. Fail, and I get to eat you! Who will be your contestant?"

I turned to Annabeth, it was her quest, so she should choose. "I've got this. I know what she's going to ask." None of us argued, if there was someone in our group that could answer any riddle, it was Annabeth Chase.

Unfortunately, the Sphinx had changed tactics over the past three millennia. "What is the capital of Bulgaria?"

"Sofia, but-"

"Correct! Please be sure to mark your answer clearly on your test sheet with a Number 2 pencil. Make sure you bubble each answer clearly and stay in the bubble. If you have to erase, erase completely or the machine will not be able to read your answers." I wanted to laugh. If this is what someone had to go through in a mortal school, I was glad that I was a year-rounder. This was completely ridiculous! "Now, next question-"

"Wait a second. What happened to the riddle: 'What walks on four legs in the morning'?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"The riddle about man. He walks on four legs in the morning as a baby, two legs at noon as an adult, and three legs at twilight as an old man. That's the riddle you used to ask."

"Exactly why we changed the test! You already know the answer. Now second question: What is the square root of sixteen?"

"Four, but-"

"Correct! Which US president signed the Emancipation Proclamation?"

"Abraham Lincoln, but-"

"Correct! Riddle number four: How much-"

"HOLD UP!" She was clearly upset, and I couldn't blame her. The Sphinx was supposed to ask riddles, but it was asking _test questions_ , not riddles! "These aren't riddles. It's just a bunch of dumb, random facts. Riddles are supposed to make you think. I'm a child of Athena, and this is an insult to my intelligence."

"Think? How am I supposed to test if you can think? That's ridiculous! Now how much force is required-"

"Hold it! Annabeth is right! These are stupid questions, so let's turn you into the contestant. If you won't ask riddles, why don't you answer some? Like say: Tall I am young, short I am old; While with life I glow, Aeolus' breath is my foe; What am I?"

"Um-"

"Or how about this one: In my mind's eye I see; Three circles joined in priceless, graceful harmony; Two full as the moon; One hollow as a crown; Two from the sea, five fathoms down; One from the earth, deep under the ground; The whole, a mark of high renown."

"Hey, I ask the questions around-"

"Here's another one, Apollo would like it, considering it's a haiku: Now, steady friend; Welcomed as remembered gleam; Earth's enemy, long dead."

"If you won't answer my questions, then you fail. And since we can't allow any children to be held back, you'll be EATEN!" The Sphinx then jumped at Annabeth, but Tyson rammed into her, crashing them into a pile of bones. Annabeth turned invisible just as the Sphinx tossed Tyson aside. Grover slowed her down by hitting her in the eye with a femur. Percy pulled out his sword, just as Tyson hit her with her grading machine. "NOOO! How can I be exemplary without my test scores!" she wailed.

The cage bars rose, and the others made their escape, but I couldn't leave without one final parting shot. "Hey! I am named Vulcan's forge and Terra's womb; I veil Apollo and bring grey death; And make the world anew with Terra's blood. What am I?"

As we were making our escape, Annabeth turned to me and said, "Those were pretty good riddles. How did you come up with them?"

"Actually, I got them from a book, a radio show, and a movie. You know the answers?"

"Yeah. For the most part they were easy. That last one I had to think for a little while though. The first one was a candle, the second, a double-pearl ring, the third, a star, and the last one was a volcano. You have any more?"

"Some, but let's wait until we get back, okay? Right now, we have a spider to catch."


	7. Vulcan, the Forge and ... Javier?

We eventually caught up with the spider at the door to one of Vulcan's forges. Inside the door, it was an enormous mess, as if the owner would start one project, thought of another, and started that one before finishing the first project. Then I caught sight of Vulcan (excuse me, I mean Hephaestus, he was obviously in his Greek form,) and he was nothing like what I expected, in fact, I wondered at first if the Mist was obscuring my sight. I blinked to make sure, and he looked the same. I allowed the Mist to dampen my sight, and he looked the same. He was dressed in a dirty jumpsuit, his shoulders were uneven, his head misshapen with a permanent scowl, and his right leg was shorter than his left. "Well, what have we here? I didn't make you, did I?"

"Uh, no cousin. We're demigods, not automatons. We were at the winter solstice meeting." I called him my cousin because I was pretty sure that he was only Juno's son.

"Hmm. Well then, if I didn't smash you to a pulp then, I suppose I won't have to do it now."

"Sir, we're looking for Daedalus. We thought-"

But that was definitely the wrong thing to say to my cousin, as he almost blew up at that. Fortunately, he quickly calmed down and explained. "People, monsters, even gods change. You can't trust 'em. Look at my loving mother, Hera. You met her, didn't you? She'll smile to you and talk about how important family is, eh? Didn't stop her from pitching me off Mount Olympus when she saw my ugly face."

Percy actually commented that he thought my father did that. "Mother likes telling that version of the story. Makes her seem more likable, doesn't it? Blaming it all on Lord Zeus. The truth is, my mother likes families, but she likes a certain kind of family. _Perfect_ families. She took one look at me and . . . well, I don't exactly fit the image now, do I? Believe me, you can't trust others. All you can trust is the work of your own hands."

"Seems to me like a lonely way to live, cousin. But you haven't answered Annabeth's question. Can you lead us to Daedalus?" Festus eventually agreed to lead us to him, for a price. Annabeth immediately agreed, before asking what he wanted. Luckily it didn't sound too bad, just find out who was using his Mount Saint Helens forge. At least we didn't have to fight Typhon, we'd have probably died if we tried that. Festus reprogrammed the spider that had led us to him so that it would instead lead to his forge.

The spider easily guided us through the Labyrinth. We kept up easily, until Grover had us stop. When I asked him what was wrong, Grover said that Faunus was near. He then pointed down a side tunnel made of dirt. Grover wanted to go look for Faunus, but Annabeth wouldn't let him go alone. We almost lost the spider before Tyson decided to go with him and let us go on to the forge. After that, Percy got into an awkward discussion about how Athena had kids considering she was a maiden goddess. I wondered if she took that vow before or after meeting Theseus, because I had heard that she'd actually fallen for him, hard.

We eventually got to the Mount St Helens forge, and the heat was absolutely sweltering, so I used my gift to essentially create a large fan to keep us cool. Annabeth decided to scout ahead, while I stayed behind with Percy to watch his back. (What? He often got himself in trouble because he wasn't obeying the first rule of battle strategy: Always mind your surroundings.) He eventually decided to sneak into a mine cart full of celestial bronze which was then taken by a kind of sea monster, telechines maybe? I decided to carefully follow them to another part of the forge, which had been remodeled into a classroom. There we found out that the telechines were part of the war machine that drove Saturn's armies and were making celestial bronze weapons. Percy was obviously about to be discovered, so I jumped out in between the cart and the telechines, just as Percy did the same. "Couldn't stay away, could you Alex?"

"You know me, Percy. I have to be in the middle of the action." The telechines charged us, to their great regret. Percy and I slashed the first two rows of monsters, making the others hesitate

"New lesson class. Nearly all monsters will turn into sulfur when sliced with a celestial bronze or steel blade. This is perfectly normal and will happen to you _right now_ if you don't BACK OFF. Class dismissed." We ran off to where we had left Annabeth and Percy called for her. She immediately grabbed his mouth and got him to shut up. Apparently the telechines were building some 'ultimate Titan weapon' that needed two different metals. That got me thinking of how Percy described Luke's sword, Backbiter-made of celestial bronze and mortal steel. A weapon deadly to mortals and mythologicals alike. Maybe they were making a new version of Saturn's scythe? I didn't want to think about it, and I got my wish. The army of telechines had just broken through the door Percy had locked and was coming at us.

"You two, run!" Annabeth and I objected to that, but Percy wouldn't listen to us. "I've got plan. I'll distract them. You can use the metal spider-maybe it will lead you back to Hephaestus. You have to tell him what's going on."

"But how are you going to get back? There's no way that you'll be able to find your way back."

"Don't worry about me, Alex. I just have one request for you."

"Anything, Perce. You know I think of you as a brother. I'd do anything for you."

"In case I don't make it back, would you watch out for Annabeth?"

"Gladly," I answered, just as Annabeth pulled him close, and kissed him. I nearly cheered as Percy responded, that meant I was free to date Nico! Wait, that came to me without a single thought? Did that mean I was willing to take the risk?

"You better come back, Seaweed Brain. Otherwise, I'm coming down to Hades and demand you go to the Fields of Punishment." Percy just smiled and turned to the telechines. Annabeth and I ran for the entrance to the Labyrinth. About five minutes after we left Percy, we heard an _enormous_ explosion behind us. We both knew that that had to be Percy, but what had he done? We eventually made it back to Vulcan and told him what was going on at Mount St Helens, and about the explosion.

"Hmm. I wonder what ole' Earthshaker's kid has gone and done. Nothing good for my forge, that's for sure. Thank you for the help, demigods." Annabeth and I left him alone and headed for the first door for the surface we could find. We eventually found ourselves in Spokane, Washington and made our way to a small diner with a TV set to the news. _Repeating our top story of the evening, Mount St Helens has experienced a major eruption with no warning. This is easily the largest eruption since 1980, with hundreds left homeless and more than 100,000 people evacuated. Ash has fallen as far away as Seattle and Portland, with more sure to come down._

"I've heard enough, Annabeth. Let's get going. Chiron's going to want to know about Percy." She nodded, but she seemed to be in a daze. I couldn't blame her. After hearing about that explosion, I was afraid for Percy too.

* * *

The next day (probably,) we were still traveling through the Labyrinth when I caught the scent of dew mixed with sulfur coming from the right. I was so confused that I had to turn to see what was going on. That's when I was run over by the one guy that I never expected to see in the Labyrinth: Javier Vargas, son of Nyx. "What are you doing lying around?! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" he yelled, and then started running again. Annabeth and I were naturally confused, so we looked back where he had come from. I couldn't believe my eyes. I saw an army that seemed to have marched out of the pages of Tolkien's Middle Earth series: dozens of goblins, ogres, and orcs. We only needed one look to know that Javier was right, and we started running.

A few miles later, they were still following us, and I was tired of running, so I decided to do something about it. I stopped running and charged up my electricity before unleashing it on the monsters, instantly vaporizing them. "Hey guys, you can stop running. We don't have to worry about the monsters any longer." They stopped running and looked back at where the army had been, both of them seemed relieved. "Now Javier, since we've ditched the uglies, you want to explain how you're in the Labyrinth, let alone get chased by an army?"

"Someone tripped me." Sounds reasonable.

"And what did you do to get those guys so mad at you?"

"I put a spear through the chest of their leader."

"And why would you do that?"

"Wouldn't you do the same if he was terrorizing a village?"

"A village." I was starting to wonder if the Labyrinth had messed with his mind. Monsters didn't terrorize villages anymore.

"Yeah, in Yellowstone. It was full of satyrs, nymphs and elves."

Annabeth and I looked at each other and asked in unison, "Elves?"

"Yeah, elves. And I'm not joking or mad."

Then I noticed a blood-red piece of cloth in his hand, one that clearly had the touch of Fortuna. "And what would that be, pray tell?"

"Oh, this? This is Caesar's Cape."

"Caesar? As in Gaius Julius Caesar Divius?"

"Yeah. I even met him in the maze, as a ghost. He asked who I was and, I don't know, studied me I guess. Then he asked if I wanted it. I said yes, because it was almost like the cape was calling to me. Caesar then had me take three tests I had to pass in order to get the cape. I told him I could pass any test." He then looked like something had really made him upset. Definitely not a good thing with him. I remembered all too well what happened the last time he lost his temper. "He gave me a dream or a vision. I really don't want to talk about it. He then told me I passed the test and gave me the cape. I found an exit and ended up in the village in Yellowstone."

I stared at him in confusion. "Wait a minute, you met Caesar's _ghost_? That doesn't make any sense."

"Why not?" Javier asked.

"Divius, a name that Caesar earned after his assassination means 'the Divine.' He's a god now, I've seen him on Olympus. What did he look like?"

Javier thought for a moment before replying "He had a face that belonged on a Roman bust, and harsh, very harsh. But the most distinguishing feature were his eyebrows, they were enormous, black things! They actually reminded me of Might Guy from _Naruto_."

"Did he ever say he was Caesar?"

"No, but the villagers said that this was Caesar's cloak, so he must have been Caesar, right?"

"Not a chance! Caesar was the image of Roman perfection, and he was a blond. No, the man you met could have only been his uncle, one Gaius Marius, only man to have been consul seven times, first of the _populares_ to reach such a high rank, and the second man to march on Rome."

He sounded depressed, so I tried to cheer him up. "Well, you saved that village, right? That sounds like something a hero would do."

"Yeah, but at the cost of many lives. I was leading the militia, and I was supposed to protect them. But dozens died because of me. And all I could do was move on and finish the mission."

"You sound like every great military leader in history. As Max DePree said, 'Leaders don't inflict pain. They bear pain.' But before you start beating yourself up about it, you need to think: if you had the chance to do it over again, would you do anything different?"

He seemed to think that over, then a few minutes later, he said "Hey Alex, remember how I told you that I tricked Clarisse into drinking hot sauce?"

I laughed at that. "Yeah, I remember. You said she had to talk with her tongue hanging out of her mouth. I wish I'd been there to see that."

"Well, when I was hiding in the Big House, I was in the attic and I met this hippie mummy-"

Annabeth finally spoke up. "You mean the Oracle."

"Yeah. Anyway, she, or it, told me something I don't quite understand. And I haven't told anyone else."

"Wait a minute, you got a prophecy from the Oracle and you didn't tell anyone?" I don't blame Annabeth. Who would hide an Oracle prophecy?

Apparently, Javier would. "I didn't understand it, and it sounded insane anyway."

"They usually do. What did it say?"

He quoted:

_Beneath the tombs of heroes  
The orphan son of the night shall descend  
The Chasm of Leaders shall be found  
The Cape of Caesar reveals a hidden truth  
In the wilderness to the west,_

_A hero and leader will rise  
Night's champion, cloaked in red  
Defender of Hestia's Flame-Wielder of Polaris,  
Great not in power, but in spirit_

"From what I can tell, the Chasm of Leaders is where I found the Cape, and it was under Arlington National Cemetery, and the Cape revealed that I'm some kind of leader. The wilderness is Yellowstone where I first became a leader and to the villagers I was a hero. 'Night's champion, cloaked in red' probably refers to me and the Cape, but the rest I don't get. Who is Hestia, and what flame? And wielder of Polaris? Is it the star, a weapon, or what?"

"Hestia is the goddess of hearth and home, you may have seen her at camp your first day disguised as a young girl tending the fire." He shook his head. "Well, Hestia's flame is obviously talking about a home, but does it mean Olympus or camp? As for Polaris, well, who knows besides maybe your mother or my dad?"

Annabeth then thought of something. "Hey, Alex? Do you think you could flash us back to camp?" As could be expected, tales of my exploits over the past few months had spread quickly when I started bringing back demigods from my raids. One of the most popular stories was how I could appear and disappear in a flash of lightning, and ever since, it's been called flashing.

"Yeah, probably," I responded to the request. "I've done trips with more people before, so we should be able to make it to camp."

"Well then, why are we still wandering in the Labyrinth? Let's go home."


	8. I Gain a Title

Chiron was waiting for us in the main hall, though how he knew to be there, I have no idea. "Annabeth, Alex? When did you return? Where are Percy, Grover and Tyson? And Javier, how did you end up with them? What happened last week?"

"Last week? What do you mean? I've only been gone a few days," Javier claimed.

"Javier, my boy, you have been missing for about a week. Now, what were you doing in the Labyrinth and how did you get out?" Javier then delved into his story. Apparently, he had been watching the entrance when Drew came up to him and asked him if he was my friend. When he said yes, she tried to Charm-speak him to become my worst enemy (probably in retaliation for me giving away the wreath in that last competition. Although, it may have been just because I hated her and many of her relatives. About the only child of Venus that I liked was Silena. The others were pretty much worthless, but Silena put forth some effort to be a real hero like the rest of us.) Luckily Silena was able to snap him out of it before Drew could finish. Javier was so upset that he decided to get back at her by putting blue hair dye in her shampoo that night. "Ah, so _that's_ how that happened. I've been wondering why her hair was blue for the past week." Drew had been furious about that, so the next morning she pushed him into the Labyrinth.

"Well, now that that is cleared up, Annabeth, would you like to explain what happened in the Labyrinth?" Annabeth filled him in on our adventures, while I stayed quiet for the most part, adding in a few details when she forgot something, or was too painful to remember. "Very well than, where are Grover and Tyson?"

"Presumably still in the Labyrinth, searching for Faunus." Chiron looked at me odd. Then I realized my mistake. Whoops, Latin. "I mean Pan. They left us while we were going to the forge."

"And what of Percy's fate?"

Annabeth started crying, so I told him "We don't know, Chiron. It's possible that he survived, but we have no idea what happened after we left. If you don't mind now, we'd like to back to our cabins now." He nodded and I led Annabeth to my cabin, leaning on my shoulder the whole way. When we got to my cabin, she looked up in shock. "What are we doing at your cabin? I thought you were going to take me to mine."

"I will, but first I thought I'd let you have a chance at having some privacy before facing your siblings. I know I would if I thought I'd lost someone I loved." She nodded, and I led her to one of the smaller rooms in the back of the cabin. I went to my room, just in time to catch Mercury there.

"Hey, Alex. Long time no see."

"Hi, bro. What are you doing here?"

"Eh, some kid had a package he needed me to deliver for him. Turns out it's for you."

"Really? Was the kid's name Jason, by any chance?"

"Maybe. But I've gotta run. I have places to go, people to see, and messages to deliver." He vanished, and I was left alone with my package. I decided that it would keep for a while, so I set it at the feet of Dad's statue, and I went back to talk to Annabeth.

She was lying face down on one of the smaller beds in the room, her head covered by a pillow. I sat down next to her and put my hand on her shoulder. I thought that she hadn't noticed it, until she said, "He's not coming back, is he?"

"What?! Of course, he is Annabeth. He's not dead, no volcano could kill him."

"How can you know that? He's still mortal, no matter how much we wish he wasn't."

"He's NOT mortal though, Annabeth. He's the son of Poseidon! And it's because we know who his dad is that I know he's alive. There's a reason Poseidon is called Earthshaker, he's responsible for all the volcanoes and earthquakes. As his son, Percy won't be hurt much by an exploding volcano. Besides, Percy and I have a curious bond, I know when he's been hurt, and I'll know when he dies. He _is_ alive, Annabeth. He's hurting, but he's being looked after. We just need to wait for him to heal, and he will come back. Now come on, I'm sure Chiron wants to put us back to work while we wait for Percy." I didn't let Annabeth see the worry I was actually feeling. Although I was 95% sure that Percy was alive, I couldn't completely shake the doubt that I was feeling.

* * *

For the next week, Annabeth and I stuck pretty close together, in case someone got news about Percy, even to the point of her sleeping in my cabin and eating at my table. (Her brother Malcolm took over duties as head of the cabin.) Eventually Chiron split us up, and I started mixing with the cabins again. On the ninth day after our return, I was doing some sword training with the Mercury cabin, when Javier pulled me aside. "Hey, Alex? What kind of metal is your sword made of? I know it's not celestial bronze."

"You're right, Ventus is actually made of celestial steel. Basically, the same as celestial bronze, but it's tougher and it can affect mortals if they get involved in the world of mythologicals. Why?"

"Could you make more of it?"

"Me? No, I had Jake and Beckendorf make it for me. But I'm sure that they'd be willing to make some for you. But why are you asking? No one else has asked."

"Well, everyone keeps saying that we're getting close to a war, and if celestial steel really is tougher, than we should be using that."

"True. But still, why are you asking?"

"Oh, no reason." I didn't believe him.

The morning after my conversation with Javier, I remembered I hadn't opened my package yet. It was a fairly small box, just the right size for a few books, and it couldn't have weighed more than ten pounds. There was a note on the box, addressed to me. _Alex,_ _sorry for taking so long, but I wasn't able to find much on the Gigantomachy. I'm sending you what little we have. Ovid's Metamorphoses has the most information, but I think you should read all of it. Over here, it's one of the most popular books. Hesiod's Theogony is actually from your Greeks, although, I would suggest that you don't read it when you have something important to do, it's one of the most boring books I've ever read. Oh, I've also sent a copy of Rome's history, the Aeneid and Livy's Ab Urbe Condita. I hope you don't mind, but I thought that considering how well we get along, you'd enjoy it. Jason._

Ah, so it was Jason who sent it. I was wondering why he hadn't sent me any information on the Gigantomachy. I opened up the package, eager to learn what Jason knew. When it was open, I saw that it only consisted of the three books from the note, all in Latin. Before I started to read, I decided to talk to Annabeth about them. " _Theogony, Metamorphoses,_ and _The Aeneid_? They're all pretty good, even though the last two are Roman in origin. _Theogony_ is a short poem about the birth of the gods and the Titanomachy, a very good read. _Metamorphoses_ and _The Aeneid_ are ... interesting. _Metamorphoses_ is essentially every myth condensed into one volume, but nothing to really draw you in. _The Aeneid_ is just a Roman version of _The Odyssey_. It's good, but the original is better. If you're really that desperate for reading material, I can get you something better." I thanked her but went back to my cabin. I pulled out _Theogony_ and started reading.

* * *

Two days later I had another vision of a camp that served Saturn, so I had a quick breakfast of foods high in electrolytes and flashed to the center of the camp. There were several demigods there, and to my shock, when they saw me, they dropped whatever they were doing to _stare_ at me. The monsters on the other hand reacted as always: they instantly attacked. Fortunately, I had gained a lot of experience with dealing with masses of enemies over the last six months and hit them with a blast of lightning from my fingertips, vaporizing several monsters.

Idiots that monsters were, they just kept charging, all of whom fell to my blade, bow or electric bolts. Well, all save the single survivor that I sent to Luke as a message. What was different this time was that _every last_ demigod had surrendered to me instantly and stared at me with something that I could only describe as _awe_. What in Tartarus was going on? Once the last monster was sent on its' way, I received my answer: "You're him, aren't you? You're the Titan's Bane," one of the demigods asked.

"He can't be! The Titan's Bane is supposed to be seven feet tall!" another said.

"But he throws lightning like Jupiter, slaughtered the monsters like it was nothing and left only one alive to tell the tale. That certainly fits everything else we've heard about the Titan's Bane," a third countered.

"Could you slow down, please?" I asked. "Tell me what you've heard about this 'Titan's Bane' and I might be able to identify him." The picture was quick to come together, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I blushed when I was forced to acknowledge that I apparently _was_ the infamous Titan's Bane. The Titan's Bane had become so (in)famous among my grandfather's ranks that it was becoming hard for him to keep demigods, especially since there was a rumor going around that I had killed a Titan in single combat. Many had already sneaked away just because of the power of my reputation. Well, I was certainly not going to turn down a weapon like this, so I asked a few of my fellow Romans to talk to their friends before heading to the Wolf House.

* * *

A week later, Chiron made an announcement. "Today, we are not going to have any of our normal activities. Seeing as how we have not heard anything in two weeks, we must admit that Percy Jackson is dead. As such we are going to hold his memorial and burn his shroud this evening. I suggest you all prepare yourselves."

Annabeth was quick to attack me, and it was only due to my extremely honed reflexes that I avoided being judo-flipped. "I thought you said he was still alive?!"

"He is," I countered. "My father said our life-lines were intertwined for now and that I would know if anything too horrible happened to Percy. He's coming back, the only question is when."

That evening, Chiron was eulogizing Percy when it happened. The wind shifted, and I caught the scent: that wonderful, beautiful scent of the ocean. I instantly knew what it meant: Percy was back. Annabeth had started speaking by then, and I was getting flashbacks to my last year of mortal school and reading about Tom Sawyer crashing his funeral. "Percy was probably the bravest and best friend I've ever had or ever will have. And I refuse to believe that he's dead until I see his body. He ..." I saw her get the largest smile I'd ever seen as she said, "He's right there!"

Everyone turned to see where she was pointing. Turns out, Percy had been right behind me, and I gave him a hug. "Welcome back, cuz."


	9. And the Mortal Shall Lead Them

Once everyone had calmed down, Chiron sent the others to their usual activities while the four of us went to the Big House. When we got there, Percy told us of his new plan to navigate the Labyrinth. I had to admit that it had merit, but trusting a mortal ... I didn't like it, even if it was a mortal that _had_ helped Percy more than once. Luckily, I had a weapon that would kill mortals involved with mythologicals. The first sign of treachery, and I _would_ kill her, consequences be damned.

While Percy and Annabeth picked up Ms Dare, I was going to enter through Zeus' Fist. But before I got there, Jake Mason interrupted me. "Hey, Alex!"

"Hey Jake, what's up?"

"You know that Nyx kid, right? Javier?"

"Yeah, he's kind of a friend of mine. Why?"

"He's asked me and Jake to make him a sword from celestial steel. Do you want us to make it for him or not?"

I _knew_ there was a reason he had been asking about it. "Go ahead and make it, Jake. If people want celestial steel weapons, make them. In fact, why don't you go ahead and start making an arsenal of steel weapons and armor." He looked at me like I was crazy, so I decided to explain. "Look, we're heading into a war Jake. We might as well prepare to fight, and one way to prepare is to stock up on weapons. We have plenty of bronze weapons, so start making steel weapons. Besides, some campers might want to try them out once they see others using them." He had to give me that, and set off towards his cabin, while I entered the Labyrinth. And to make sure that I wouldn't get lost this time, I had taken a new steel knife and started scratching lightning bolts into the stone every five steps.

A few hours later, I caught the scent of the ocean and an owl, so I turned down a passage that I knew that we hadn't gone down before. I had just caught sight of a crossroad, when I noticed holes in the wall. Great, booby traps, just what I need. Just to be cautious, I started using my walking stick to check for pressure pads before I stepped on a stone. Unfortunately, just as I hit the halfway point, I hit one. I quickly activated my shield and started running as fast as I could down the corridor. When I made it to the junction, I turned right so I could follow the scents of Percy and Annabeth.

When their scents started mixing with the smell of sulfur, I started getting worried. At least 75% of the monsters had sided with Saturn, so there was a good chance that they'd been captured. But what had happened to Red? I followed their scents to what appeared to be . . . a colosseum? Whatever it was, it was definitely built similar to the Flavian Amphitheatre, and being used for the right sport-gladiator fighting. To my shock, I saw Percy fighting a dracaena, and the coliseum was decorated with thousands of skulls and a green flag with the trident of Poseidon. When I looked up to the viewing booth where the Caesar would be, I saw Luke and an enormous giant that almost appeared to be made of dirt. There was only mythological that that could be: Antaeus, son of Neptune and Terra, the giant that built a temple for his father Neptune out of the skulls of his victims.

By now, Percy had defeated both the dracaena and a demigod, and was challenging Antaeus, and I had been surrounded by monsters. I let myself be led to Annabeth and she pulled me in a tight hug. "I'm so worried, Alex! What if he doesn't win?"

"He'll win Annabeth, assuming he can remember the key to beating Antaeus." I looked up and saw Percy stab him through the ribs, and the sand started coming up to heal the wound. " _Ave Caesar. Morituri te salutamus,_ " I whispered. Considering how Percy was fighting Antaeus, I was starting to doubt that he'd ever heard the tale of Hercules vs. Antaeus, and that phrase seemed fitting for the scene and what was about to happen to us. Then, to my great surprise and pleasure, Percy started hauling Antaeus up to the roof of the skull-temple, severing his connection to Terra. Only after Antaeus had been completely tangled in chains did Percy stab him again. Say what you want about Percy, but he is not a slow learner. You may need to tell him something twice, but never a third time.

Unfortunately, after Antaeus died, Luke wasn't willing to keep to his bargain. "Antaeus is dead. His oath died with him. But since I'm feeling merciful today, I'll have you killed quickly. But spare the girl, I want to talk to her."

That confused me, so I asked "Really, Luke? Why kill us when you know that you need one of us to fulfill the prophecy?"

"Simple. You two are obviously too stubborn to change your feelings about Olympus, especially considering what _you_ have been doing to my army! So, we will obviously have to find this rumored cousin of yours or go after Thalia. I think I can convince her to switch sides. Farewell, hopefully I'll never see you again!" I pulled my knife and stabbed the Androphagoi that was guarding me, then threw it at the Laestrygonian that was guarding Annabeth. At the same time, Mrs. O'Leary came bounding in and gave us some cover while we made our escape.

About an hour later, we finally stopped running and for the first time I noticed the fourth demigod in our group. "Ethan? Ethan Nakamura? What are you doing here?"

"He was going to join up with Luke." Well, I couldn't say that I was surprised. He was one of the formerly dozens of unclaimed kids that stayed in the Hermes cabin. Then, considering who I knew his mother to be, that gave him yet another reason to side with Saturn considering she'd already sided with him.

"There is no right side in this war. The gods never cared about us. Why shouldn't I-" They started getting into a major argument, one that I knew would never be won by either side. Both had good points, but what it came down to was a choice. I had chosen to side with the gods because it was the right path, although it would have been _so_ easy to side with Saturn.

After about five minutes of arguing, Ethan finally parted ways with us. I told him, "I hope you succeed in your goals, Ethan." Then I shook his hand and was thrown into a vision.

_Percy, Grover, Thalia and I were on Governors' Island facing a Titan, a dracaena, a giant, and Ethan Nakamura. The giant was carrying an enormous white flag. The Titan was saying "Percy, your position is weak. You know you can't stop another attack."_

_"We'll see."_

_"Percy, I'm the Titan of forethought. I know what's going to happen."_

_Grover said, "Also the Titan of crafty counsel. Emphasis on_ crafty _."_

_"True enough, satyr. But I supported the gods in the last war. I told Kronos: 'You don't have the strength. You'll lose.' And I was right. So, you see, I know how to pick the winning side. This time I'm backing Kronos."_

_Then the scene shifted. This time, Percy, Annabeth and I were on Olympusand we were fighting Luke and Ethan. I was shooting arrow after arrow at Luke while Annabeth was trying to reason with him. Using Saturn's voice, Luke shouted at Ethan "Nakamura! Time to prove yourself. You know Jackson's secret weakness. Kill him and you will have rewards beyond measure."_

_Percy said "Look around you, Ethan. The end of the world. Is this the reward you want? Do you really want everything destroyed-the good with the bad?_ Everything _?"_

_"There is no throne to Nemesis. No throne to my mother."_

_"That's right! Strike them down! They deserve to suffer."_

_"You said your mom is the goddess of balance. The minor gods deserve better, Ethan, but destruction isn't_ balance _. Kronos doesn't build. He only destroys." Ethan swayed a little, then charged Saturn, bringing his sword down on Saturn's neck._

_Unfortunately, his sword broke on Saturn, with a piece piercing his stomach. "Deserve better. If they just . . . had thrones-" And thus died Ethan Nakamura, son of Nemesis/Invidia._

The next morning, after escaping an earthquake, Rachel led us to a stainless-steel hallway that _shouldn't_ have led us to Daedalus' workshop and yet, it _did_. Behind the steel door with the mark of Daedalus lay a room that any child of Minerva or Vulcan would go crazy over. There was an egg the size of a man, what looked like an electric chair, and even some new wings. He also had dozens of laptops (with screen savers running. He hadn't been gone long,) and entire racks of Greek fire (I would _definitely_ be sending some of that to Jason!) Then I looked outside and I realized where we were. "Colorado Springs, the Garden of the Gods."

We turned around to find Quintus standing on a spiral staircase, his sword drawn. I couldn't understand what he was doing here, until he said a few things. "The view changes from day to day. It's always some place high up. Yesterday it was from a skyscraper overlooking Manhattan. The day before that, there was a beautiful view of Lake Michigan. But it keeps coming back to the Garden of the Gods. I think the Labyrinth likes it here. A fitting name, I suppose."

"That's an illusion out there? A projection or something?"

"No. It's real. We're really in Colorado," Rachel murmured.

Quintus looked at her, as if he was seeing her differently than us. "You have clear vision, don't you? You remind me of another mortal girl I once knew. Another princess who came to grief." That's when the pieces came together. His knowledge of the Labyrinth. His extreme age, automaton body and knowledge of the Roman camp. The murderer's brand on his neck and the tale I'd read in Ovid's _Metamorphoses._ Minos looking for someone who had "cheated death."

"You're Daedalus. You built yourself an automaton body to cheat death."

"You're crazy, Lightning Rod! That can't be Daedalus! And that can't be an automaton!"

"My girl, you need a lesson from your friends on seeing clearly. Do you know what Quintus means?" Annabeth answered, and Daedalus responded, "This is my fifth body." He then pushed on his elbow and his wrist opened up, showing the gears and wiring that allowed him to stay alive. I stared in shock, the idea that a man could live inside a robotic body went against everything I believed. Annabeth felt the same, saying that it was not natural. "Oh, I assure you, my dear, it's still me. Our mother, Athena, makes sure I never forget that."

Then he pulled down on his shirt, revealing the partridge brand on his neck. "The murderers' brand, for when you pushed Perdix off the Acropolis," I realized, having read the story in _Metamorphoses_. Ovid had covered the incident because he told the tale as Daedalus pushing Perdix off, then Minerva saved him by turning him into a partridge (perdix in Latin.)

Daedalus glared at me. "I did not push him. I simply-"

"Made him lose his balance." Percy interrupted. "Let him die."

"I regret what I did. I was angry and bitter, but I cannot take it back, and Athena never lets me forget. She branded the bird's shape on my neck as a reminder. No matter what body I take, the brand appears on my skin." As he continued talking, it quickly became apparent that not only had he been talking to Luke, but he had sold us out to Saturn. "Kronos promised me freedom. Once Hades is overthrown, he will set me over the Underworld. I will reclaim my son Icarus. I will make things right with poor young Perdix. I will see Minos' soul cast into Tartarus, where it cannot bother me again. And I will no longer have to run from death."

Annabeth and I were furious! A son of Athena, giving up on fellow demigods just to escape judgment? I was starting to wonder if Daedalus _was_ human anymore. "Your cause is doomed, my dear. I saw that as soon as I began to work at your camp. There is no way you can hold back the might of Kronos."

"Want to bet, traitor? Three sons of the Big Three at our camp, one from each, while I am apparently becoming a living legend in the enemy army. And our camp isn't the only one out there preparing to fight Saturn."

Annabeth looked at me in shock, while Daedalus said "The other camp has chosen their side, this war is already lost."

That was when the doors to the workshop were knocked down by two Lestrygonians, followed by an almost-solid Minos and an empousa pushing . . . "Nico!" He had been chained up, and it almost looked like he been beaten, except for the fact that there were no marks on him. "What did you do to him?!" I growled out.

Minos smiled in a way that just screamed _evil_. "I just did a few things to punish him for not listening to me when I tried to convince him to reenter the Labyrinth. And it was meant to hurt _you_ for convincing him to give up his quest. If you hadn't, I would have been alive by now!"

"I'll _destroy_ you Minos! I don't care that you're a ghost, how long it takes, or what I have to do, I _will_ see you obliterated! You will never be able to haunt anyone else again!" I vowed. Then we attacked, Annabeth going for the giants, Percy for the demon, and I went to free Nico.

Minos tried to bring ghosts up from Hades to fight for him, claiming out loud the title of Ghost King. Nico wasn't having any of that. "No, I am!" he shouted, just before stabbing the ground, creating another fissure, as the ghosts were dragged back down to Hades, temporarily. When they started rising again, Nico fell back, scared and obviously wondering why his powers weren't working properly, then we saw _her_. No, not Juno, I wish it _had_ been her. It was the one goddess that all mortals feared back when the Olympians had been worshipped. Invidia aka Nemesis, goddess of Balance and Revenge.

"What are you doing here, Invidia?" I yelled.

"Making sure justice is done to Daedalus, of course! What did you think I was doing, son of Jupiter? And as long as the son of Hades is able to control the ghosts, he interferes with that. So, he must be dealt with." And with that, she created a bow and arrow, and took aim at Nico. Nico was too busy dealing with a Lestrygonian to notice and I knew that I couldn't do anything to throw her aim off before she loosed the arrow. So just as she loosed it, I jumped between the arrow and Nico, taking it in my left shoulder. It didn't hurt much, but now I was _furious_. Not only does she make things harder for us, but now she's tried to _kill my Nico!_ I drew my bow and shot her with three of my 'special' arrows, straight through her heart, right eye, and throat. Then, to my surprise she burst into green flames and then disappeared.

I was so furious that I lost control, and by the time I was alone, and only Minos and four ghosts were left, and I only had one arrow. I looked around for a set of wings, but the others had taken them. Minos noticed. "Lookee here boys. A lost bird. A lost bird who never learned to fly."

"To my great regret. But, never too late to learn," I quipped back. I wasn't sure if I could, but according to Jason, children of Jupiter could fly with nothing more to help them than their own powers over the wind. But before I could let myself leave, I had one thing to try. I started chanting in Ancient Egyptian as Ra guided me through the spell, and as I chanted, I pulled out the _shabti_ that Ra had had me make and bind Minos' _sheut_ to, though Minos had no idea of what I was doing. Finally, I reached the end, and Ra gave me the missing piece. "Minos, I name you King of Crete, Judge of the Dead, Lord of Retribution. I speak for the gods, I speak for Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. I am a Servant of Ma'at, I cast you underfoot." As I spoke, I cast the _shabti_ down and crushed it. "I erase your name, I remove you from the memory of Greece and Rome. I exile you beyond the void. You are no more!" With the destruction of the _shabti_ and the end of the spell, Minos screamed like he was being torn apart molecule by molecule, and finally, erupted into flames. I had no idea if the execration had worked though, and the only way to know that would be to talk to Hades or ... Nico (gulp!) I took off from the Garden, worried about that talk. To tell the truth, I was more worried about seeing Nico again. I was certain from my reaction to Invidia's attack that either I _hadn't_ gotten over my crush on my cousin, or I really _was_ in love with him, and I didn't know which I'd prefer.

I tried to track down Percy, Dare and Annabeth, but I lost track of them in the city. Now I had no idea where to go, and I had only my visions to guide me. Fortunately, my visions helped. The next place I knew they'd be was Mount Othrys/Tamalpais near San Francisco. But before I could take off, I got an Iris-message from Jason. "Hey, Alex! Where are you?"

"Just outside Colorado Springs, near the Garden of the Gods. Why?"

"Oh, just curious. I was a little worried that I might have interrupted something. Hey, you read the books I sent yet?"

"Yeah, I loved them! I can't believe I went so long without reading them! You have any others like them?"

"Which ones? _Theogony_?"

"Oh, gods no! I _hated_ that! If it was any longer, I would have fallen asleep reading it! No, the ones I want more of are _Metamorphoses_ and _The Aeneid_. I am definitely looking for English copies for public reading!"

"Ha, and I win twenty gold denarii. I _told_ Reyna that you'd like them! I told her we were a lot alike! I do have a few more Roman texts that I like that I could send you if you like."

"Definitely!" Then I noticed something off about Jason. "Are you doing alright?"

"You know how Roman politics work, right? Well I just lost the consular election to a pacifist son of Janus!"

Elections? Well, that changed things. Now I need to actually _study_ some of the books I'd bought just for curiosity's sake, or so I could learn more about ancient Roman culture. Hmm, definitely Caesar's records, anything by Cicero, and Quintilian for certain. "So, what kind of person is this son of Janus?"

"He's arguing for a truce with Saturn, that alone should be enough to tell you what kind of man Cassander Theron is."

"He _what?!_ Jason, you need to stop him, no matter the cost!"

"Alex, I can't! As much as I would love to, I can't, not unless I want to end up like Brutus and the other assassins. I need to find my own way to keep up our end of the war. Good luck, Alex." With that, he ended the call, and I made my way to the one place I knew they'd be: Mount Othrys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the translation for the Latin phrase that Alex quoted at Antaeus' Coliseum: Hail, Caesar! We who are about to die salute you, the famous line said by gladiators before they started their fights. Also, I understand that Riordan chose praetor as the top rank in New Rome & Camp Jupiter, but for most of the history of the Roman Republic, it was actually the consul that was the head of state with the praetorship being considered a steppingstone to consul.


	10. A Titan Rises

When I finally made it to Mount Othrys a few hours later, I quickly caught the scent of the sea, and a little further away, an owl and death. Great! I made it here the same time as them. I slowly descended, looking for my Greek cousin. To my surprise, I caught sight of him inside a shimmering black cloud, wearing Annabeth's Yankees hat. _The cloud is an invisibility spell._

 _Oh, thanks Ra._ Even though I'd been talking with him for a few weeks now, I still wasn't used to having him in my head but at least he always helped out. Then I spotted someone I wasn't expecting to see again for about a year: Ethan Nakamura, and he was with a group of telechines carrying _something_ wrapped in cloth, and they were heading towards a large black mausoleum. As I looked around, I realized that Saturn's power was quickly growing, and with it, the Titan's palace here. It wasn't complete, yet, but it was close. I slipped into the shadows, using an Egyptian spell that Ra taught me so I could follow them without being seen. As Percy and I got inside the mausoleum, I realized that it held a giant, golden sarcophagus that was covered in scenes of death and destruction. _The seventh seal broken: The gods fall, the West dies_ I remembered. If Saturn actually succeeded, the entire world was in big trouble. In the middle of the lid was a language I didn't recognize, but Ra did. _It's Hieratic, an Egyptian form of writing. Less formal and quicker to write than Hieroglyphics, but just as powerful with magic. It reads: Kronos, Lord of Time._ Just as Ra finished his explanation, Percy pushed off the lid of the coffin, and revealed Luke in the coffin.

All three of us were shocked. Why would Luke be in a coffin for Saturn? Fortunately, Ra had a suggestion. _Perhaps Kronos was so badly damaged because of the last war that he needs a host before he can assume his Titan form. It's the only thing I can think of._ I had to admit, that was quite plausible, and scary. But there was a problem with that, because the Greco-Roman deities were more . . . physically in this dimension than the Egyptians, it was impossible for mortals to host them, it would burn us up. _And what about that curse of Achilles? Bathing in the River Styx so that you become invulnerable. Could that not make the body more durable until Kronos was ready to move on?_

I had to admit that it was plausible, but before I could make a comment, the enemy entered the mausoleum and attempted to present Saturn with a gift: his remade scythe, Saturn's symbol of power. One of the telechines told Ethan to swear allegiance to Saturn, but then Percy cried out, begging Ethan not to do it. Unfortunately, Ethan renounced the Olympians, saying "What have they ever done for me?" and swore allegiance to Saturn. Once he swore allegiance to Saturn, a blue whiff of smoke rose from the ground and moved to Luke and entered him through the hole over his heart. The pain of another broken seal hit me, and as I watched, the hole filled in and Luke rose to a sitting position and opened his eyes. I gasped in shock, where once they had been a bright blue, now they were a cold gold that perfectly matched the sarcophagus. When he spoke, it was with Luke's voice, but also merged with Saturn's, and there was no doubt as to who was in control. He spoke briefly with Percy, but Percy quickly ran off.

I was torn in two, part of me wanted to join him and run to the others, but every part of my Roman heritage was screaming _Fight him! To Hades with the prophecy, let's destroy him now! A soldier and citizen of Rome does not run from a fight, no matter the odds._ Eventually Ra managed to talk some sense into me and I ran, but not before blasting the telechines to dust. I ended the spell while I was running so that the others knew not to leave without me. Saturn shouted, _"AFTER THEM!"_ I was shocked when I heard that, but when I thought about it, I shouldn't have. My vision was coming true. Sure enough, just as soon as we were in the clear, Nico created an enormous wall of black stone between us and the exit to Othrys. Just for good measure, I blasted at the corridor until there was nothing left of that part of the Labyrinth.

A few hours later, we finally stopped running and Nico asked "What happened with you back at Daedalus' workshop? One minute you're completely normal, the next you're a killing machine."

"I'm not completely sure. The last thing I remember is Invi-I mean Nemesis threatening to kill you, then she shot an arrow at you that I took. Next thing I know, I'm standing alone with Minos and a few of his goons."

"Why did Nemesis want me dead?"

"She's sided with Sat-Kronos and as long as you were alive, you threatened his victory, especially considering you're command over the dead. Speaking of which, Minos will never trouble us again, he's destroyed. Or at least I hope he is."

"How?" Nico asked, completely shocked.

"Something I read about while you were still on your own. I found a way to separate a person's shadow or legacy from his soul. Destroy that, and it's like that person never existed at all."

"So THAT'S what that feeling was! I'd felt something odd there, but I didn't know that you'd gone and killed a ghost!"

"That's all well and good, but you need to start talking Lightning Rod." Sons of Dis! I knew where Annabeth was about to go, and I didn't dare answer her. "What's up with you and all the Latin? Why are you using the Roman names when you should be using the Greek? _What's going on?_ "

"I'm sorry Annabeth, but I can't tell you. If I did tell you, I don't know what would happen, and I can't risk losing everything because of Chiron."

"What are you talking about? What do you mean 'lose everything because of Chiron'?"

"My father has a plan in motion, and I play a major part in it. If my secret is revealed too early, the entire plan could derail, and I can't risk it. Just accept the fact that I prefer Latin, and I'll explain everything once the plan is set in motion. And that goes for the rest of you as well. Do NOT tell Chiron about this, please." Luckily for me, they all swore on the River Styx not to say a word about it, even the mortal.

With that over, Percy and Annabeth quickly got into an argument over Luke. But before they could try to kill each other, Nico pointed out that we had to keep moving. We had only gone about a mile when Percy spotted something: Grover's Rasta cap and the footprints of a Cyclops. Percy and Annabeth insisted on following the tracks until we found them, Saturn's army be damned. We followed the tracks until we came to a cavern with a river, and Tyson cradling Grover on the bank. It quickly became clear that they'd had a far more interesting time on their own than we had, and that Grover believed we were close to Faunus. So, the seven of us crossed the river and started walking, and the further we walked, the more I could feel the power emanating from somewhere close, and I caught the scent of a forest and goat fur that _had_ to belong to Faunus.

When we entered the next chamber of the cavern, the things we saw shocked us all. In the center of the room was a Roman-style bed with an ancient faun lying in it, and surrounding the faun was the strangest menagerie I'd ever seen: a woolly mammoth, a dodo that was humming the most annoying tune ever created, a giant guinea pig, and a Tasmanian Tiger. Faunus greeted Grover and said that he'd been waiting for Grover for a long time. Annabeth was naturally more awed at the beauty of the natural architecture of the place. "I'm glad you like it, my dear. It is one of the last wild places. My realm above is nearly gone, I'm afraid. Only pockets remain, tiny pieces of life. This one shall remain undisturbed . . . for a little while longer. My punishment, I guess."

Grover looked shocked. "Punishment? What do you mean, Lord Pan?"

"I suppose I must tell you. Nearly two thousand years ago, on my sacred Mount Paneum I challenged a man that did not worship me or the other Olympians. Little did I know that that man was not just a man."

"Wait, Mount Paneum? Also known as Mount Hermon, the Mount of Transfiguration! Yeshua HaMashiach. You challenged God incarnate!"

"Yes, I did. You know your history well, son of Jupiter." Again, Annabeth was shocked when she heard the name of my father. I just hoped she would keep her promise and not tell Chiron before the time was right.

"I'm a Messianic Jew, what do you expect?" I'd expected Faunus to continue his story, but before he could, his body started turning into sand and a hoof fell apart.

"I have slept for many centuries. My dreams have been dark. I wake fitfully and each time my waking is shorter. Now we are at the end, the hourglass is empty." Grover tried to convince him to hold on for a little longer, but Faunus had given up hope. The other hoof and one of his horns fell to dust before he managed to continue. "You sweet, stubborn satyrs refused to accept my passing. And I love you for that, but you only delayed the inevitable. You only prolonged my long, painful passing, my dark twilight sleep. It must end. You must accept the truth. Your companion Nico, he understands."

Nico nodded. "He's dying. He should have died long ago. This . . . this is more like a memory."

"But gods can't die!" Grover was still refusing to accept the truth.

"You're right, a true god cannot die. But we Olympians are not true gods. We can fade when everything we stood for is gone. When we cease to have power and our sacred places are gone. The wild, my dear Grover, is so small, so shattered that no Olympian could save it. My realm is gone. That is why I need you to carry a message. You must go back and tell the satyrs, the council, the dryads and other spirits of nature that the great god Pan _is dead._ Tell them of my passing, because they must stop waiting for me to save them. I cannot. The only salvation is the one you must make for yourself. Tell them-"

Faunus was briefly interrupted by Dede the dodo changing tunes. "Each of you must take up my calling. Be strong. You have found me, and now you must release me. You must carry on my spirit, for it can no longer be carried by a god. It must be taken up by all of you." Then he turned to each of us, and we realized that he really was talking to all of us. "Percy Jackson, I know what you have seen today. I know you have doubts. But I give you this news: when the time comes, you will not be ruled by fear. And your destiny is greater than you know. Daughter of Athena, your time is coming. You will play a great role, though perhaps not the role you imagined."

Then he turned to me. "Son of Jupiter, you believe that you know your role in the world, but like your Greek cousin, it is far greater. I can truly rest in peace knowing that _in personam pacis_ is about to rise now as the wheel turns."

I couldn't believe what he said there. Was he actually calling me the personification of peace? I stood there, barely noticing anything as Faunus' body completely turned to sand and collapsed. Grover then said, "We should go now and tell them: The great god Pan is dead."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credit where credit is due, Faunus/Pan's death by turning into sand is influenced by the deaths of Zeus and Poseidon in Wrath of the Titans


	11. Operation: Obliterate!

After the death of Faunus, Nico and I decided to flash back to camp as messengers. (Although, I did have a bit of a hard time convincing him. It wasn't until I told him that he would be staying with me and that no one would bother him that he agreed.) The first thing I did when we got back was call Jason. " _Salve_ , Alex! What's happened that you're calling me so quick after our last talk?"

" _Salve_ , Jason. I was hoping that you could deliver a message to the Roman nature spirits. Tell them that Faunus is dead, and he asks them to carry on his mission."

"Can't say that I'm surprised. The Wild has been dying for the past century, there can't be much left. But at least now you won't be losing any more fauns searching for him. Say, we never set a date for our training session, did we bro?"

"Well, the Greeks end their summer session in mid-August, just before our birthday."

" _Our_ birthday?"

"Mine and Percy's. Anyway, I was thinking we could start around September 1st and go till December 14th, and we meet at the Wolf House. Sound good?"

"You're willing to come all the way here? Why?"

"Well, I've got a quick way to travel, and I'd prefer to be closer to you than here. This camp doesn't hold many happy memories for me outside of my friends. As soon as my part of Dad's mission is done, I'm leaving here and going with you."

"Well then, I hope that you're tough and stubborn enough to survive here. We don't take to weaklings well."

"Hey! I've challenged three different gods on four occasions. Is that tough enough for you?"

"Which ones?"

"Bacchus once, Mars twice, and Invidia not three hours before our last conversation. Bacchus gave up, I wounded Mars once, and made Invidia leave, when she was determined to kill one of our Greek cousins. And I have made Mars, Bacchus, _and_ your patron Juno my enemies. Is that good enough?"

"Sons of Dis, you have _got_ to be crazy! Making my patron _and_ the god of gar your enemies? I only wonder what Lupa will think of you. May Victoria give you victory, brother. You're going to need her support."

You have no idea, Jason. "And may Fortuna smile on you and your attempts to save Rome." Then, just before the Iris Message dissolved, I saw a look of shock pass over Jason's face. Then I heard a short cough behind me.

When I turned, I found Nico behind me. How long had he been there? "Who were you talking to just now, Alex?"

"He's just a friend I met a few months ago."

"Really? Then explain how you know him when the only time you've left the camp in two years is on quests. And how is it that he knows about Iris Messages and isn't here, now?"

"Before I explain, I need you to swear on the Styx that what I tell you stays between us until I say otherwise. You can't even tell your father. Understand?"

"What's wrong, Alex? Don't you trust me?"

"Of course, I trust you Nico. It's others in this camp that I don't trust, and I need to know that you won't tell the wrong people about this. If you did, it could derail a plan that's essential to our survival." Nico conceded and swore to keep it a secret. "Alright, first I met him on the same quest that Bianca died. Actually, I met Jason only a few hours after she died."

"But how does he know about Iris Messages? And why isn't he here?"

"That's the part that requires the oath. Jason is a son of Jupiter-"

"Don't you mean Zeus?"

"No, I meant Jupiter. Jason is from a camp where everyone is a child of the Roman forms of the gods. That should answer both of those questions. Anything else?"

"Yeah, what did you mean by _our_ Greek cousins? And who were those people you mentioned: Mars, Bacchus, Juno, Dis, Fortuna and Victoria?"

"Well, to tell the truth, I'm a Roman demigod, not Greek. Dad is using me as part of a plan to keep the peace between the two camps when we need to meet. As for the names, they're the names of Roman gods. Mars is Ares, Bacchus is the wine dude. By the way, thanks for coming up with that nickname. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, Juno is Hera, Dis is Latin, short for Dis Pater, translated as The Rich One. So, Dis is your father, Fortuna is Tyche-goddess of luck, Invidia is Nemesis, and Victoria is Nike."

"If Dis is my father, then what's with that 'Sons of Dis' thing Jason said? As far as I know, Father never had any immortal children, let alone sons."

"It's a general Latin curse."

"Figures. Nobody really likes my father, do they?"

"Not really. But who does like death? Hey, you _are_ okay with this, right? I mean the fact that I'm a Roman demigod, not Greek."

"Why wouldn't I be? You're my friend, no matter what. But how is this secret dangerous?"

"If Chiron found out, I could be killed or booted out and sent to Jason. And if that happens, then Dad's entire plan to reunite our camps would be for nothing. If that happens, both camps could be destroyed, and only our enemies would benefit from that."

A few hours after that, Percy, Annabeth and Grover returned from dropping off Rachel Dare. Naturally, when the Council of Cloven Elders found out about Faunus' death, they didn't believe a word of it. But Chiron insisted that it be put off till a later date, considering the coming battle.

* * *

The preparation for the battle was the largest military operation I'd ever seen the Greeks do. All of our 80 campers were working together to prepare for the coming battle, including the ones I saved from Saturn's forces. I mostly worked with the Festus cabin, setting up booby traps near Zeus' Fist and inside the Labyrinth. That night, we prepared to fight, Percy and Nico staying in back so that they could fight where they were needed most. I created a nice little perch for myself, with the permission of the dryad, so that I could shoot the enemy as they came out of the Labyrinth and keep an eye on our entire army (even if it wasn't even a full century's worth.) As we prepared, I gave them one order: "If I see even _one_ enemy demigod killed, you _will_ regret it, understood? Knock them out, wound them if necessary, but _not one death_."

It was about dusk when Saturn's army set off the first trap. Inside of five minutes, they had set off all the traps inside the Labyrinth and had exploded out of the Labyrinth. Clarisse called out to the others to lock shields, and just before the first group of monsters hit them Charlie ordered the catapults to fire and the Apollo kids loosed their first arrows. I joined them by blasting the last rank with my electric powers. Amazingly, we were able to hold them back for nearly an hour before they ran out of ammunition. I managed to hold them back for a little while, but the army quickly surged to meet ours. I jumped to the ground, pulling out Ventus and my shield, with my knife carefully hidden behind my shield and started attacking them.

Unfortunately, a handful of the army managed to get past the flank and headed out to burn the camp. Percy also noticed it and warned Nico. Nico stabbed his Stygian iron sword into the ground and said, "Serve me." With that, nearly a dozen of the dead rose from the ground, ranging from Roman centurions to soldiers from WWII. Nico fell to the ground, and I rushed to him, asking if he was all right. "My powers drain me a lot. With great power . . . comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later."

"Sure, Nico. I'll cover you, but at least have a little ambrosia." His skeletons went after the monsters that went to burn the camp, while I made sure no others got past me. Several times, I faced fellow demigods, those I just knocked unconscious so that I could try to talk to them afterwards and try to change their minds. It was starting to look like we might win when Campe came through the Labyrinth. I thought about destroying the entrance to the Labyrinth, but Annabeth was right, in order to truly protect ourselves and Olympus, we'd need to destroy the Labyrinth. Then I was remembered something Daedalus/Quintus had said at the Garden of the Gods. _"The maze is no longer mine to control, Annabeth. I created it, yes. In fact, it is tied to my life force."_ Tied to Daedalus' life force. If Daedalus died, the Labyrinth dies with him, and Saturn will have to come over land to get to us and Olympus.

Fortunately, Daedalus chose that moment to return and fight with us, and along with Briares and Mrs. O'Leary, they killed Campe. They turned the tide in our favor, until the dracaena threatened them with punishment by Saturn if they didn't stand and fight. They fought all the harder because of that, even taking down Chiron. Then, to everyone's surprise and shock, Grover opened his mouth and let loose with the most horrifying sound we'd ever heard, something to cause fear to take root and grow out of control in the hearts of our enemies. The giants trampled the dracaena in their haste to escape, and I led Nico's army of the dead to cut any others off from Zeus' Fist. We must have captured close to two dozen demigods and thirty monsters. The monsters we executed, while we sent the demigods to stay in the rebuilt cabin to Juno/Hera. Against all odds, we had won, but we had to finish the victory. The only way to truly have victory here is if we destroyed the Labyrinth.

I turned back to Nico, only to find that he had collapsed again. "You crazy son of Dis! Why'd you try to summon so many?" I demanded as I hugged him. The kid was going to give me a heart attack one of these days!

Nico just smiled weakly at me and said "You guys . . . needed help. Raising the dead . . . was the best way . . . to help." Fortunately, Daedalus realized the danger of the Labyrinth, and was willing to die in order for it to be destroyed. But so that his ideas would live on, he gave Annabeth a laptop that was full of nothing but plans and architectural designs and dozens of other things that any child of Minerva would love to get their hands on. He then offered Nico a chance to trade his soul for Bianca, but Nico declined. "No. I will help you release your spirit. But Bianca has passed. She must stay where she is. Besides, a good friend warned me that people aren't the same after they've been in the Underworld." Daedalus approved, and then asked Percy to look after Mrs. O'Leary for him. Percy gladly accepted the responsibility. Nico drew his sword and said "Your time is long since come. Be released and rest in peace." A smile of relief came across his face, his bronze skin became transparent, and then his body turned to ash and disintegrated. Then a small earthquake hit, a 4.6 that shook the entire country as we later found out, and the Labyrinth was no more. Operation: Obliterate had been a success. Now we had to deal with the fallout, starting with the funerals and the Council of Cloven Elders.


	12. Repercussions

The next morning, Nico woke me up early telling me that Chiron wanted to ask me some questions. When I got there, the first thing Chiron asked was **"WHY in Hades' name did you spare those demigods?"**

I froze at the question. How could Chiron possibly ask that question and still consider himself a good man? "Why wouldn't I Chiron? They surrendered, so I spared their lives. What was I supposed to do, execute them? Common human decency says I did the right thing. Besides, this way I might be able to get them to join us as I have with many other demigods. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go see if I can get them to join us." Damn, I was going to be glad when I got away from him. I just wondered how I'd get along with Lupa, and how the other Romans would treat me, especially considering I was trained by _Graecii_.

Before I actually did talk to the demigods, I went back to my cabin and called Diana, asking her permission to use her cabin to hold the Roman demigods until I could get them safely to their camp. She gladly agreed, although she was surprised to learn that I knew about the Roman camp. (She knew I was Roman, she just hadn't known that _I_ knew I was Roman, or that there was a second camp out there.) Then I contacted Jason to let him know about the incoming demigods. "Any idea how many or when you'll be able to bring them here?"

"No, Venus only said that there were some Romans, not how many. I'll probably bring them by as soon as the summer session is done, assuming any of them are willing to switch sides."

"Eh, bring them even if they want to stay with Saturn. I'm sure we can convince them to switch sides. Say, how many died in your fight?"

"Nine total, not counting satyrs or nymphs. How are things there?"

"Well, I've got some good news, bro. I was just named Dictator!"

" _Sunt tibi gravis?_ Dictator?! What happened? You'd had an election only a few days ago, what happened?"

"We did, but we got attacked by the Trojan Sea Monster, Cetus, and Cassander was revealed as a traitor."

"You were? And you not only exposed him but defeated it? _Ego sum laetifico,_ Jason. _Id meruisti_ , Dictator Grace."

"Thanks, but hey, that will make it all that much easier for you to join a cohort when you get here, with me as Consul. See you in a few weeks, brother. May Fortuna give you luck." I responded with the usual farewell and signed off. Only then did I go to Juno's cabin and talk to my prisoners. Calling them out one at a time, I talked to each of them to discover why they were fighting for Saturn. Some of them were there because they hadn't been claimed, though they'd waited for years. Others were the children of minor deities that wanted to gain respect for their parents. And twelve of them were fighting for him because he 'granted them salvation from the sin of being demigods.' I managed to get those twelve plus three others to leave Saturn for Olympus, and only partly due to my reputation as the Titan's Bane. Of those that left Saturn, six were Roman, and three of the loyalists were also Roman. I could hardly believe it, nine Romans out of twenty-four demigods? Was Saturn trying to get us to fight each other, or did he not know about the two camps? Which reminded me, somehow I needed to ask Chiron about why our camps were on opposite sides of the country and why it was that they didn't know about the other. Well, it was either ask him or see if Jason could find out from Lupa.

At noon that day, the Council of Cloven Elders met to decide the fate of Grover. The satyrs were naturally upset at the loss of Faunus and refused to believe it, even though all five of us told them the same thing. Silenus was even more upset when Juniper said that Grover caused a panic, something only Faunus could do before. Just when it seemed like they would exile him, Bacchus came in, upset over the loss of his son. He revealed the treachery of the minor deities, and then threatened Silenus when Silenus said that Grover's claims were preposterous. When it finally came down to a vote, the three satyrs voted to send Grover into exile, while Chiron and Bacchus voted that he stay, and because the wine dude's vote counted twice, they were split evenly, and the Council of Cloven Elders was dissolved. When the other satyrs realized what had happened, Grover immediately counseled them with Faunus' last words and started advising them as to how to save what was left of the wild. Later that day, Nico told me he was leaving so he could train where he was wanted, in the Underworld, and to try to find out some information about his mother. "If that's what you think is best, then go ahead, but please, keep me updated. I don't want to have your sister's ghost haunting me because I didn't keep my promise."

"Sure Alex, no problem. Besides, I'm sure that you can sympathize with me, feeling like we're not quite welcome here. Me because I'm a son of Hades, and you because of your Roman heritage. And like you said, you don't want a ghost haunting you, do you?"

I had to laugh at that. He would know about being haunted, considering what had happened with Minos. I gave him a hug and kiss on the cheek before saying "Go on and get out of here, Nico. Just let me know if you find anything out about your mother, okay?" He agreed and left, stopping by to say goodbye to Percy and Annabeth.

Over the rest of the summer, we continued as before, although Percy, Annabeth, Silena and Charlie Beckendorf had one more adventure that summer. During the Fourth of July capture the flag game, they had an encounter with Myrmekes, one that revealed a bronze dragon that had been built to protect the camp before Thalia's sacrifice. It also had the unexpected effect of getting Charlie and Silena together as a couple, finally. Everyone in the camp had been able to see that they liked each other, and I had been advising Charlie to ask her out, and giving the same advice to Silena, but until then neither of them had listened to me. Unfortunately, it hadn't done the same for Percy and Annabeth, despite their kiss at Mt St Helens a few months before. Also during that time, I was able to transfer the Romans to Camp Jupiter without Chiron noticing their absence.

On their last day of camp, as Percy and Annabeth were saying goodbye and going over the meaning of Annabeth's prophecy, when _she_ showed up. "You found the answers, as I knew you would. Your quest was a success." Annabeth was naturally upset at that and started listing our losses. "Our family is safe. Those others are better gone, my dear. I am proud of you."

" _Those others?_ " I asked. "You're talking about two of your _grandchildren_. How can you say that?" Percy then accused her of being the one that paid Geryon to let them go. _She_ claimed it was to speed them on their way. "But you didn't care about Nico or me, did you _stepmother?_ You'd have been just as happy to see us handed over to the Titans, wouldn't you, you _harpy!_ You _witch! You monster!_ "

"Oh, please. Your dear cousin said it himself: no one wants him around, and I'm sure that if your friends or Chiron learned the truth about _you_ , then you wouldn't be welcome either. Neither of you belong here."

Percy growled at that, claiming Vulcan was right, that she only cared about a so-called 'perfect' family instead of real people. Hera got mad at him, claiming to have done many things for him over the course of the quest and then went so far as to _demand_ a sacrifice from Annabeth. Naturally, Annabeth wasn't going to go along with that idea. "Percy and Alex are right. _You're_ the one that doesn't belong, Queen Hera. So next time, thanks, but no thanks."

"I agree. The only sacrifice you're going to get is that of your birds, my dear _stepmother_. From now on, consider us at war, _Juno_." I hissed her name as if it were a curse.

"You will regret this insult, Annabeth, and that declaration of war, Summers. You will regret it dearly." And then she was gone. Percy was off to his home, while Annabeth was moving in with her father back in Frisco. I teased her, saying it was because she didn't trust me, but I knew she just wanted to patch things up with her father.

Two days later was Percy's birthday party, and to my surprise, I was invited. Well, actually I'd been invited to his birthday parties before, but not since we'd started at Camp Half-Blood. Although, considering this could be our last birthday party, I guess I should have expected it. What I wasn't expecting was that Sally was actually planning it to be _our_ fifteenth birthday party, which I didn't learn until the minute I got there. (Percy was in on the conspiracy, the traitor! He _knew_ I hated birthday parties, especially with my mother gone nuts. He deliberately didn't tell me that it was for me as well!) Once I'd calmed down, Percy told me about an unusual conversation he'd had with Paul Blofis, a friend of his mother's. Apparently, Blofis had basically asked Percy's permission to marry Sally. A few minutes later, just as Percy and I were about to blow out the candles, the doorbell rang. Percy looked at me in surprise, and I couldn't blame him. Their apartment had someone to warn the residents when someone was coming up to see them, and he hadn't given Sally a warning call. When she opened the door, we were all shocked, because at the door were our fathers, Jupiter and Neptune/Poseidon. (My uncle was in his Americanized Greek form at the time.) After a quick but awkward introduction, Dad turned to Uncle N and said, "You were right, brother. She _is_ a queen among women."

After greeting Tyson, (and another awkward introduction,) Uncle N pulled Percy aside to talk, while Dad also pulled me aside. After listening to my account of what happened after our last talk. "Hmm, so Father has indeed fully returned. This could mean trouble, for both you, and your brother, as well as your cousins. But I am sure that we will prevail, as we always have. But you must be careful, my son. This will be one of the worst trials that you shall have to go through in this life. So far, you have acquitted yourself as a true Roman."

"So, does that mean that you approve of how I've dealt with Nico, and my plan to train with Jason?"

"I couldn't be prouder of that, son. I have often tried to convince my Greek half to let Pluto have equal representation on Olympus, but I've had no luck. As for your Roman training, you may need it in the coming war if you wish to survive."

"Wait, what did you mean, you've tried to convince your Greek half?"

"Simple, Alexander. While we share the same body, Zeus and I are essentially two different people. Much is the same, but just as much is different. I trust my brothers to stay in their realms, but Zeus is too paranoid and stubborn to do that. That's what comes through ruling during the city-state period I guess. When one city-state fights another, it makes it hard to trust your family."

"I'm kind of surprised that _you're_ able to trust them, considering you ruled during three civil wars in sixty years. And then the murders of so many Caesars during the time of the Roman Empire."

"Well, the many wars were just a symptom of the mistrust between the city-states. As for what I went through, well, we had some rough periods, but it was never as bad as the Greeks had before Rome came in. Besides, that's how Rome works, the strong and powerful come to power. Such is the _Cursus_ , death haunts life and fortune is endlessly mutable." And with that, Dad left the porch with a flash of lightning and the crash of thunder. I was starting to think that Uncle N was right, Dad _did_ have a flair for the dramatic.

That night, I was preparing for bed, when I caught the most unusual scent that I'd ever run across, a scent that was little beyond words to describe. I stepped to the window, where I saw Percy planting a sprig of a very unusual plant. I was about to ask what it was when Nico appeared next to Percy. He had gotten an inch taller since the last time I'd seen him and was wearing a bomber jacket over a black T-shirt and jeans, and he was wearing a silver ring in the shape of a skull. "I've been exploring, and I thought you'd like to know, Daedalus got his punishment. He's building overpasses and exit ramps for the Asphodel Fields for all time, he's actually quite happy about it. He still gets to build, and he gets to see Perdix and Icarus on the weekends." Percy and I both approved, although I had to say, for Daedalus that sounded more like a reward than a punishment. But at least Dis wouldn't be complaining about traffic problems any longer. "But that's not the real reason I've come. I've found out some things, and I want to make you two an offer."

"What kind of offer, Nico? And why are you making it to both of us?" Percy asked.

"It's a way to beat Luke. If I'm right, it's the only way that either of you will stand a chance in a fight against him." Then he noticed the cake. "Is that . . . blue birthday cake?"

"Come inside for cake and ice cream. It sounds like we have a lot to talk about," Percy said. Percy served Nico up some food, and as he ate, he told us what he'd learned, his suspicions about what it meant, and his plan. "I'm not sure, Nico. It sounds like a good plan, but I'll have to get back to you on it."

Nico turned to me for my answer. "Sorry Nico, but I'm not doing it. It sounds like a good plan, but I don't think I'll need it. I'm the son of Jupiter after all, and I wield one of the most dangerous weapons in the world. In addition to that, I've got someone who's going to be teaching me another style of fighting, one that Luke has never seen before. If I didn't have my reputation, or if I wasn't getting that extra training, I'd say yes. But it is happening, so I don't think I'll need to go to such extremes. Sorry Nico, but if one of us is going to follow your plan, it's going to be Percy."

"It's alright, Alex. I'm not going to force you to do it, I just thought I'd offer it now. And I'm offering it now so that you have some time to think about it, Percy." Percy then offered to let him stay here for the night before heading back to wherever he came from. Nico gladly agreed, and lay down on the couch, right where I was going to sleep. I smiled and prepared a bed on the floor.

I had hoped that I would have another peaceful sleep, but that hope proved in vain. _I found myself standing a courtyard, the same courtyard I had seen in my first dream of Egypt. Before me stood Ra in his classic human-bird form with an image of the sun on his head. "Greetings my son. Egypt needs your help."_

_"What? But Saturn is preparing for his war! I can't stop helping out my family."_

_"Egypt is as much your family as Greece and Rome. Besides, if Apophis has his way, all the lesser deities will fall, Egyptian and Greco-Roman alike. Dr. Julius Kane will be in the British Museum on December 25_ _th_ _and plans to release Osiris from the Rosetta Stone. Unfortunately, all five of the children of the Demon Days are bound in the Stone. If you don't help out, Set will almost certainly release Apophis from his two-thousand-year long imprisonment, even if he doesn't intend to. You_ _ **must**_ _go there, or Olympus and Egypt will fall! Remember my warning!"_ I awoke then, trembling from the warning in my dream. Couldn't I have one fairly peaceful year?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Latin translations are as follows. Sunt tibi gravis: Are you serious? Ego sum laetifico: I am glad. Id meruisti: You deserve it. Also, keep an eye out for the full story of what happened with Jason in Rise of the Dictator.


End file.
